Pharmacology Research Paper
Research Paper on Pharmacology
Pharmacology is the study of drugs, their origin, uses, and reactions in the body in the body of humans. Pharmacology emerged as a key area in American Medicine particularly after John Jacob Abel stressed the significance of chemistry in the field of medicine.
Moreover, pharmacology mainly focuses on how drugs react in the body of a person to alleviate the person from effects induced by various disorders which a person might suffer from.
The study of medications and their physiological effects is the focus of the medical specialty of pharmacology. It includes the investigation of the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and mechanisms of action of medications.
The creation of novel medications is an essential component of pharmacology since it makes it possible to cure and prevent a variety of ailments. This essay, therefore, offers a discussion on the linkage that exists amidst pharmacology, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacokinetics along with the list of the most common mistakes in medical administration together with the measures for preventing the errors.
Background
The antiparasitic medication ivermectin was initially discovered in the 1970s. It was first used to treat nematode worm and arthropod-related diseases in livestock, but it was subsequently discovered to be useful against a variety of parasitic infections in people. Ivermectin has attracted increased attention as a possible COVID-19 therapy in recent years.
Understanding Pharmacology
Pharmacology refers to the science of drugs and the effects of drugs on the body of living things. Its role is to assist the medical professional to understand why the changes are taking place in the body of an individual after taking medication, and this would significantly assist in discovering new medicine to assist in fighting disorders and improving the effectiveness of medicines.
Pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics as fields in medicine are related to pharmacology through being the branches of pharmacology.
Pharmacodynamics is a branch of pharmacology that involves the study of physiological or biological impacts induced by the varying concentration of drugs on the body of a person over a given duration. It further involves the localization of drugs to a specified location of the body.
Most of the medications normally tend to have effects on more than one part of the body, and they may induce some unwanted side effects.
Therefore, pharmacodynamics relates to pharmacology thus offering insight into the specific effects of drugs on the parts of the body, and this would significantly improve the study of drugs thus enhancing pharmacology as a field in medicine.
Pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics, on the other hand, is the branch of pharmacology that deals with the study of how drugs are absorbed, metabolized, and excreted by the body. Habitually, a drug may be administered to the body through the mouth or injection.
The form of response of an individual to a specific drug typically depends on the inherent pharmacological properties of the medication at its site of action.
It is therefore through the aid of pharmacokinetics that the understanding of how the drugs and absorbed, metabolized, and excreted from the body would be made available to the medical professionals who might disseminate the same knowledge to the patients.
Pharmacokinetics thus relates to pharmacology by shading more light on how the medication administered to treat various infections is absorbed and excreted from the body after assisting the body to fight the disease, and this would significantly assist in enhancing the knowledge on pharmacology and drugs in general.
Similarly, medication error refers to any preventable event that may lead to inappropriate use of medication or patient injury while the medication is being controlled by the professionals of health care and the patients. The error in medication administration therefore include
- Failure to administer medication to the right patient
- Failure to administer the right medication
- Medication not at the right time
- Failure to administer the right dose of medication
- Failure to administer medication through the right route.
Errors in Medication
The errors in medication administration can be prevented through the use of various strategies which include but are not limited to ensuring the five rights of administration of medication and following proper medication reconciliation procedure.
Other strategies are the double-checking procedure for drug administration, considering using the name alert along with having the physician or another nurse read the back of the medication to be administered to the patient receiving healthcare.
Nurses must ensure that the policies of the institution relating to medication transcription are adhered to. While transcribing medication as prescribed, the nurse should ensure that the medication is prescribed for the correct patient, in the right dosage, and through the correct route promptly and this would resultantly help in preventing the instances of occurrence of errors in the administration of medication.
Furthermore, to prevent the occurrence of errors in medication administration, it is required that the health care institutions must have in place a mechanism for medication reconciliation when a patient is transferred from one institution to another.
This would enable the transferred patient to continue receiving the same medication as those that the patient was receiving before being transferred to another healthcare institution, and this would as well assist in preventing medication errors.
Additional mechanisms of preventing error in medication administration include proper storage of medication for proper efficacy and availing drug guides at all times of drug administration.
Process of Action
Ivermectin paralyzes and kills parasites by attaching to certain receptors in their nervous system. Moreover, it possesses anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties that might help with COVID-19 therapy.
Therapeutic Trials
Ivermectin’s effectiveness in treating COVID-19 has been the subject of several clinical investigations. Ivermectin, as opposed to conventional therapy or a placebo, was shown to be significantly linked with a decrease in mortality, hospitalization, and viral clearance in a meta-analysis of these trials.
These studies have, however, come under fire for having small sample numbers, heterogeneity, and methodological flaws.
Regulatory Acceptance
The World Health Organization and various regulatory organizations have not yet authorized ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 despite the encouraging findings of several trials.
Limited effectiveness data and worries about side effects and medication interactions are to blame for the absence of regulatory approval.
Conclusion
In conclusion, pharmacology is the field of medicine that deals with the study of drugs. It has two main branches which are pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics which contribute towards enhancing understanding of drugs and their mode of action in the body.
Moreover, the administration of medication is usually associated with some errors which include but are not limited to the failure to administer drugs to the right patient via the correct route.
A promising medication with the potential for treating COVID-19 is ivermectin. However, further investigation is required to confirm its efficacy and safety, and regulatory approval is still absent.
One of the most important aspects of pharmacology is the creation of novel medications, and continued research in this area is crucial for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses.
