A patient has taken levodopa (Dopar) for Parkinson's disease for ...

[future617RT]

A patient has taken levodopa (Dopar) for Parkinson's disease for 2 weeks but reports no improvement in the symptoms. Which response by the nurse is correct?
 
  a. Another agent will be needed to manage your symptoms.
  b. Double the dose to see whether an effect occurs.
  c. It may take several months for a response to occur.
  d. The prescriber may need to change your drug regimen.

Question 2

A nurse is teaching a group of students about how CNS drugs are developed. Which statement by a student indicates a need for further teaching?
 
  a. Central nervous system drug development relies on observations of their effects on human behavior.
  b. Studies of new central nervous system drugs in healthy subjects can produce paradoxical effects.
  c. Our knowledge of the neurochemical and physiologic changes that underlie mental illness is incomplete.
  d. These drugs are developed based on scientific knowledge of CNS transmitters and receptors.

[hramirez205]

Answer to Question 1

ANS: C
A full therapeutic response with levodopa may take several months to develop. Until the true effect of the dose is seen, it is not necessary to change to another drug, increase the dose, or change the drug regimen.

Answer to Question 2

ANS: D
The deficiencies in knowledge about how CNS transmitters and receptors work make systematic development of CNS drugs difficult. Testing in healthy subjects often leads either to no effect or to paradoxical effects. Medical knowledge of the neurochemical and physiologic changes underlying mental illness is incomplete. The development of CNS drugs depends less on knowledge of how the CNS functions and how these drugs effect that process and more on how administering one of these agents leads to changes in behavior.

[future617RT]

TY

[hramirez205]

You're welcome