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Pharmocology- Unit Four
Compliance and Placebos (T Pierce)
16
Medical
Professional
11/13/2009

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Cards

Term
Components of compliance
Definition
  • take proper number of pills per day
  • take pills in correct intervals throughout day
  • taking the correct number of pills in a prescription (finish the prescription)
Term
Affect of symptoms on compliance
Definition
  • poor compliance with:
    • few symptoms (HTN)
    • sever symptoms (advanced cancer)
  • better compliance with moderate symptoms (acute pain)
Term
strategies to increase compliance
Definition
  • communication from health care provider to the patient
    • discuss dx and tx plan selected
    • discuss time table for follow up
  • education about tx
  • dosing
    • reduce number of medication
    • reduce number of doses per day
    • provide dose checklist
    • provide pill box with daily compartments or an alarm reminder
  • scheduling of clinic visits
Term
define placebo response
Definition
aspect of the response to tx or medication that is NOT related to the pharmacologic or physiologic effects of the tx or medication
Term
define placebo
Definition
  • can be physiologically inactive or inert compound
    • but there is such a thing as active placebos
  • can be either a substance or precedure
Term
purpose of placebos in modern medicine
Definition
  • specific tx modality
  • control for comparisonn purposes in scientific studies
Term
What types of conditions appear to respond to placebos?
Definition
  • conditions must be capable of variable intensity over time
  • common in psychiatric illness and pain conditions
  • low symptomatic severity predicts better placebo responsiveness
Term
Explain the role of placebos in adverse reactions
Definition
  • you see a great variety in the types of ADR in drug trials with placebos
  • however, the rate of severe adverse reactions is much lower than in the experimental group
Term
General ideas about the type of person that responds to placebo
Definition
  • there is no "placebo responder" profile
  • however, there are some general characteristics
    • patients and/or conditions with high levels of stress
    • milder diseases with milder overall symptoms
Term
Mechanism of placebo response
Definition
  • unknown
    • have been seen at neurochemical level
  • positive and negative expectations fulfilled by placebo
  • some association of response with degree of stress
  • placebos have time effect curves, peaks, cumulative, carryover effects similar to those of active medicines
Term
What constitutes a placebo?
Definition
  • pills, injections, procedures of many kinds
    • ex: efficacy of procedures like acupuncture may also be placebo effect
  • placebos may be inert ("sugar pill") or active
    • active placebos may be chosen for a response that mimics some aspect of the active drug being compared
      • taste
      • sedative properties
      • anticholinergic activity
Term
Experiment with CCK antagonist for pain relief showed better pain relief than placebo. However, when given the same drug surreptitiously, there was no effect. What did that tell us about the mechanism of action of active placebos?
Definition
  • they act via the expectation pathway
    • perceived effects enhance expectation pathway
    • stimulation of opioid receptors via mobilizing endogenous opioids
Term
What is ment by the nocebo effect caused by CCK agonists
Definition
  • this is a placebo effect that increases pain
  • remember, the CCK antagonists acts via expectation pathway to give pain relief
  • CCK agonist acts via the similar pathway as the antagonist to enhance the pain effect aka the nocebo effect
Term
Role of open vs. hidden administration in placebo effect
Definition
  • noted that the response was based off of whether or not they knew it was a placebo or they didnt
    • only experimental drug effective (and its effects delayed)
Term
Role of physician in placebo effect
Definition
  • placebo effects far more powerful when the substance is given by a physician than when purchased OTC by a patient
  • besides a medication, patients also get examination, chance to discuss condition, dx and plausible tx plan
Term
What are the probelsm with using placebo controls in clinical trials?
Definition
  • it is unethical to deny therapy
  • one must stop a trial as soon as it has been demonstrated that test treatment is superior or is harmful
  • use of active vs. inert
    • greater response with active placebo
    • proper choice can help with blinding
      • need something identical in as many ways possible to experiemental tx
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