Patient Case
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Patient Case
A myriad of patient factors such as age, genetics, body size, gender, and body weight influence the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics processes. Pharmacokinetics entails the drugs’ movement throughout the body with the four basic processes being absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2020). Pharmacodynamics refers to the study of the physiological and biochemical effects of drugs on the patients’ bodies.
From my clinical practice, I had an observation of a patient case where her age, body size, and gender might have influenced both the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics processes during health outcomes management. The patient was an African-American 8-year-old-girl who was being treated for Attention Deficit Hypersensitivity Disorder (ADHD). The patient was also obese.
The above factors, therefore, affected the drugs’ biochemical and physiological processes. For example, the patient was put on low drug doses. It is important to note that children can suffer from drug toxicity because they are still experiencing growth and development. Some ADHD medications have been associated with reduced growth among children, as well as a change of personality changes. Despite children having developed livers and kidneys during their infancy, children experience renal and hepatic variations across their childhood (Stillhart et al., 2020). Drugs with great potency levels can be given in smaller doses yet have the desired therapeutic effects.
Obese patients are likely to have a different gastric and permeability difference from underweight or normal-weight people. Among obese patients, there is a reduced permeability, which means that a patient might require higher dosages for the drug to reach effective concentrations to have a desirable effect (Stillhart et al., 2020). The child’s African-American race might have resulted in differences in pharmacokinetics due to interaction with cultural factors such as diet.
References
Rosenthal, L. D., & Burchum, J. R. (2020). Lehne’s pharmacotherapeutics for advanced practice providers.
Stillhart, C., Vučićević, K., Augustijns, P., Basit, A. W., Batchelor, H., Flanagan, T. R., … & Müllertz, A. (2020). Impact of gastrointestinal physiology on drug absorption in special populations––An UNGAP review. European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 147, 105280.