Posted: May 15th, 2023

Discussion: Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics

Discussion: Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics
As an advanced practice nurse assisting physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders, it is important to not only understand the impact of disorders on the body, but also the impact of drug treatments on the body. The relationships between drugs and the body can be described by pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.

Pharmacokinetics describes what the body does to the drug through absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, whereas pharmacodynamics describes what the drug does to the body.

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When selecting drugs and determining dosages for patients, it is essential to consider individual patient factors that might impact the patient’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes. These patient factors include genetics, gender, ethnicity, age, behavior (i.e., diet, nutrition, smoking, alcohol, illicit drug abuse), and/or pathophysiological changes due to disease.

For this Discussion, you reflect on a case from your past clinical experiences and consider how a patient’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes may alter his or her response to a drug.

To Prepare
Review the Resources for this module and consider the principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
Reflect on your experiences, observations, and/or clinical practices from the last 5 years and think about how pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic factors altered his or her anticipated response to a drug.
Consider factors that might have influenced the patient’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes, such as genetics (including pharmacogenetics), gender, ethnicity, age, behavior, and/or possible pathophysiological changes due to disease.
Think about a personalized plan of care based on these influencing factors and patient history in your case study.
By Day 3 of Week 1
Post a description of the patient case from your experiences, observations, and/or clinical practice from the last 5 years. Then, describe factors that might have influenced pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes of the patient you identified. Finally, explain details of the personalized plan of care that you would develop based on influencing factors and patient history in your case. Be specific and provide examples.
Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics
Pharmacokinetics is the examination of what the body does to drugs by absorption, metabolism, distribution and excretion. Pharmacodynamics is the examination of what the drugs do to the body. Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics describe the relationship between drugs and the body (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2017). In this analysis, we evaluate a clinical experience of a patient to drugs as well as how pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics alter the response of the patient to drugs. In this case we evaluate the effect on the drug for treatment of coronary heart diseases with atrial fibrillation. The drug used is warfarin which is combined with compound Danshen. Warfarin is used as an anticoagulant while Compound Danshen is used to boost blood circulation.
The patient’s blood was affected by high concentrations of warfarin in the body. Due to this, the patient was supplied with compound Danshen which was used t boos blood circulation in the patient body. The pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics shows that the patient was affected by high blood concentrations of Warfarin. In order to improve blood response the patient was administered with Compound Danshen which was used to enable blood flow and allow patient to respond to the treatment. The body responded to warfarin by reducing blood flow which required an additional drug to improve blood flow (Lv et al., 2017).
Consequently, to plan for care the patient was to be subjected to a medical procedure which allows balanced intake of Warfarin and Compound Danshen to allow blood flow. First the tient needs to be administered with Warfarin then subsequently with Compound Danshen to improve response to drugs. Therefore, these drugs help to show the patient’s pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. All in all, intake of drugs among patients as an effect on the body which is likely to adversely or positively affect the patient. Drugs need to be consumed in the right quantities to avoid the effect of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics.

References
Lv, C., Liu, C., Yao, Z., Gao, X., Sun, L., Liu, J., … & Li, Y. (2017). The clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of warfarin when combined with compound Danshen: a case study for combined treatment of coronary heart diseases with atrial fibrillation. Frontiers in pharmacology, 8, 826.
Rosenthal, L., & Burchum, J. (2017). Lehne’s Pharmacotherapeutics for Advanced Practice Providers-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.