TOPIC 1C 7 THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF TREATMENT

List some types of drugs that control blood pressure.

1. Diuretics

2. Beta blockers

3. Sympathetic nerve inhibitors

What are antihypertensives?

1. They are the class of drugs that help lower blood pressure.

Describe how diuretics work.

1. Diuretics increase the volume of urine produced.

2. This eliminates excess fluids and salts, BLOOD VOLUME DECREASES.

3. LESS BLOOD SMALLER VOLUME PUMPED, PRESSURE DROPS.

Describe how Beta blockers work?

1. Beta blockers BLOCKS THE HEART’S RESPONSE TO HORMONES such as adrenaline.

2. So beta blockers make the heart beat slower, contractions weaker and blood pressure lower.

How do sympathetic nerve inhibitors work?

1. Sympathetic nerves go from our central nervous system to throughout the body. They stimulate our arteries to constrict, which raises blood pressure.

2. These inhibitors prevent the nerves from signaling to the arteries, keeping the arteries dilated and blood pressure low.

What is angiostensin?

1. Angiotensin is a hormone that stimulates the constriction of our blood vessels and causes blood pressure to rise.

What do ACE inhibitors do?

1. ACE inhibitors block the production of angiotensin, which reduces the constriction of your blood vessels and so keeps your blood pressure lower.

What are the two major risks that antihypertensives have?

1. The blood pressure may become too low if not monitored and used carefully. Patient may faint, fall. For elderly patients this can be life threatening.

2. The specific drug itself may have side effects. Common side effects of antihypertensives are cough, swelling of the ankles, impotence, tiredness and fatigue.

What are statins?

1. Statins are a group of drugs that lower blood cholesterol.

2. They block the enzyme in the liver that is responsible for making LDLs.

3. Statins also help improve the proportion of LDL to HDL in the blood, reduce inflammation in the lining of the arteries.

What are some side effects of statins?

1. Most people use statins with little to no side effects at all.

2. Though some usually include muscle and joint aches and nausea, constipation and diarrhoea.

There are two serious side effects of using statins, what are they?

1. Statins may trigger a rare type of muscle inflammation in a minority of people.

2. Statins may cause liver damage in a minority of people.

What is the other subtle risk of taking statins?

1. People take statins and no longer try to eat a healthy diet and statins give no protection to the other ill effects of a bad diet.

What are plant stanols and sterols?

1. Plant stanols and sterols are compounds with similar structures to cholesterol.

2. They reduce the amount of cholesterol absorbed from your gut into your body, which makes metabolizing cholesterol more easier, and reduce the levels of LDLs in the blood.

3. They are not sold as a drug but food and have been found effective in lower risk of CVDs.

What do anticoagulants and platelet inhibitory drugs do?

1. They are both drugs that help prevent blood from clotting too easily.

Name an example of an anticoagulant and describe how it works.

1. Warfarin is an anticoagulant that interferes with the making of prothrombin in the body.

2. Low prothrombin levels make the blood clot less easily.

What should we note about Warfarin?

1. It has been used as rat poison and in high dosages the rats bleed to death. In humans the usage must be monitored.

list some examples of platelet inhibitory drugs and explain how they work.

1. Aspirin and clopidogrel are platelet inhibitory drugs.

2. Platelet inhibitory drugs make platelets less sticky and so reduce the clotting ability of the blood.

What are some risk of taking statins?

1. The most well known risk would be aspirin irritating the stomach lining and causing bleeding in the stomach.

2. The administration of platelet inhibitors must be monitored carefully.

Explain why the side effects of medication may result in a patient giving up on treatment use the terms perceived risk and actual risk in your answer.

If the side effects of the medication are unpleasant and affect daily life, too much, the patients may give up on the medical treatment because of their perceived risk of the reason for taking the medication may be much lower than the actual risk. Also, the perceived risk of taking the medication and experiencing side effects may be much higher than the actual risk

Explain why placebo’s are used in drug trials.

So that patient don’t receive treatment without realizing it and this is the only factor that is difference between the treatment group and the control group. To act as a control.

The study shown in figure bee was stopped two years early because it was deemed unfair to the patient taking the placebo. Why do you think it was unfair? Is it ever unethical to use a placebo in a trial?

Patients taking the placebo don’t get the benefits of taking the drug. Possible reason for placebo is being unethical include where those receiving the placebo suffer more or are more likely to die during the drug trial