Drug monitoring


Drug monitoring



Chapter objectives



image. Learn how to monitor the beneficial and harmful effects of commonly used drugs.


image. Practise identifying the most appropriate course of action for managing different clinical scenarios.




Introduction


The ‘Drug monitoring’ section will test your ability to effectively monitor the beneficial and harmful effects of drugs. Unlike previous sections, this section predominantly assesses your ability to plan monitoring for particular drugs (rather than respond to their results). Effective drug monitoring utilizes history and clinical examination as well as investigations.


You will be asked to plan an appropriate monitoring strategy by choosing the most suitable option from a list of five for a given scenario. The emphasis here is the most suitable option: multiple options may have a role in monitoring, but as in clinical practice the scenario should help you select the most applicable to the patient in hand. For example, statins are associated with a risk of myopathy in those with risk factors for it, i.e. a personal or family history of muscular disorders, previous history of muscular toxicity, a high alcohol intake, renal impairment, hypothyroidism and in the elderly. When prescribing simvastatin, a creatine kinase level should be checked at baseline in these patients. However, if the clinical situation reveals no such risk factors then a baseline check of creatine kinase is not the most suitable option and alternatives, e.g. serum alanine transaminase should be sought.


Rather than presenting a dry list of parameters to check for each drug, this chapter uses clinical scenarios (as in the exam) to work through the drugs that commonly require monitoring. Much of this chapter is revision of previous ones.

Related posts:

  1. Calculation skills
  2. Prescribing: Doing it yourself
  3. Prescription review: A foolproof plan
  4. Planning management

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Mar 24, 2017 | Posted by in PHARMACY | Comments Off on Drug monitoring

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