An excellent animation on the mechanisms of drug addiction

The Genetic Science Learning Center at University of Utah developed an excellent animation depicting the mechanisms of addiction of most drugs of abuse. They use a cartoon-like approach to show biochemical changes in mouse brains.

NSAIDs: PowerPoint presentations

This set of lectures intends to overview the most relevant points in NSAIDs pharmacology. Troughout the post, some points are repeated. These are key concepts to remember, such as: mechanism of action, indications, some chemical characteristics and side effects profile (mainly renal and gastrointestinal).

Recommendations and guidelines on prescribing methadone for chronic pain

Methadone has been traditionally used as a drug to treat heroine addiction. In the last few years, it has gained importance as an agent in the treatment of chronic pain. As a result of this, the US Food and Drug administration has started a campaign to raise awareness about the potential risks of using methadone […]

FDA video warning about local anesthetics side effects

Local anesthetics side effects are covered in the March 2009 edition of FDA’s Patient Safety News. The agency’s concern is that after a study published in the the journal Radiology in which the authors suggest the use of topical anesthetics to reduce disconfort during mammography, more and more women will start using them without being […]

Updated SIGN clinical guideline: Pain management in adults with cancer

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) updated a clinical guideline entitled “Control of pain in adults with cancer”.  An outline of the contents (drug therapy related) in this guideline for the treatment of cancer induced pain include: Principles of pain management: introduction, World Health Organization cancer pain relief programme, using the WHO ladder. Treatment with […]

Intravenous and inhalational anesthetics, MCQs for test review

I believe some of the questions ( developed by the UMKC School of Medicine) in this set would be more suitable for an anesthesiologist or anesthesia resident than for a medical student in the pre-clinical years. However, most of them are regular questions from classic pharmacology textbooks. I hope you find them useful. Item Number: correct answer: 2 category: Anesthetics 1. All of the following factors […]

Analgesics (opioids, nsaids): MCQs for pharmacology review

These questions have been created by the Department of Pharmacology, UMKC School of Medicine.  The use I suggest is to review your knowledge of the subject for USMLE or other pharma test.   Did you find them useful? Too hard ? Too easy? Use the comment form to comment what did you think of them! Item Number: 1684 correct answer: 5 category: Analgesics 1. A child has ingested an unknown substance and has evidence of respiratory depression. […]

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