What's the difference between drug and polypharmacy?
Drug
Definition:
(v. i.) To drudge; to toil laboriously.
(n.) A drudge (?).
(n.) Any animal, vegetable, or mineral substance used in the composition of medicines; any stuff used in dyeing or in chemical operations.
(n.) Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand.
(v. i.) To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines.
(v. t.) To affect or season with drugs or ingredients; esp., to stupefy by a narcotic drug. Also Fig.
(v. t.) To tincture with something offensive or injurious.
(v. t.) To dose to excess with, or as with, drugs.
Example Sentences:
(1) Previous use of the drug is found in more than 50 per cent of the patients, and it was often followed by a neglected side-effect.
(2) Disease stabilisation was associated with prolonged periods of comparatively high plasma levels of drug, which appeared to be determined primarily by reduced drug clearance.
(3) The significance of minor increases in the serum creatinine level must be recognized, so that modifications of drug therapy can be made and correction of possibly life-threatening electrolyte imbalances can be undertaken.
(4) We have investigated the effect of methimazole (MMI) on cell-mediated immunity and ascertained the mechanisms of immunosuppression produced by the drug.
(5) Theophylline kinetics, as an in vivo probe for the potentially toxic cytochrome P-450I pathway of drug metabolism, were studied in 11 healthy volunteers and 11 patients with calcific chronic pancreatitis at Madras, South India.
(6) However, medicines have an important part to play, and it is now generally agreed that for the very poor populations medicines should be restricted to those on an 'essential drugs list' and should be made available as cheaply as possible.
(7) The ability of azelastine to influence antigen-induced contractile responses (Schultz-Dale phenomenon) in isolated tracheal segments of the guinea-pig was investigated and compared with selected antiallergic drugs and inhibitors of arachidonic acid metabolism.
(8) The LD50 of the following metal-binding chelating drugs, EDTA, diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), hydroxyethylenediaminetriacetic acid (HEDTA), cyclohexanediaminotetraacetic acid (CDTA) and triethylenetetraminehexaacetic acid (TTHA) was evaluated in terms of mortality in rats after intraperitoneal administration and was found to be in the order: CDTA greater than EDTA greater than DTPA greater than TTHA greater than HEDTA.
(9) Meanwhile the efficiency of muscarinic antagonists in inhibition of tremor reaction induced by arecoline administration is associated with interaction between the drugs and the M2-subtype.
(10) Some of those drugs are able to stimulate the macrophages, even in an aspecific way, via the gut associated lymphatic tissue (GALT), that is in connection with the bronchial associated lymphatic tissue (BALT).
(11) The 14C-aminopyrine breath test was used to measure liver function in 14 normal subjects, 16 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, 14 alcoholics without cirrhosis, and 29 patients taking a variety of drugs.
(12) The results of the evaluation confirm that most problems seen by first level medical personnel in developing countries are simple, repetitive, and treatable at home or by a paramedical worker with a few safe, essential drugs, thus avoiding unnecessary visits to a doctor.
(13) Acquired drug resistance to INH, RMP, and EMB can be demonstrated in M. kansasii, and SMX in combination with other agents chosen on the basis of MIC determinations are effective in the treatment of disease caused by RMP-resistant M. kansasii.
(14) Further development of drug formulary concept was discussed, primarily for the drugs paid by the Health Insurance, as well as the unsatisfactory ADR reporting in Yugoslavia.
(15) Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, recently proposed a bill that would ease the financial burden of prescription drugs on elderly Americans by allowing Medicare, the national social health insurance program, to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies to keep prices down.
(16) The authors empirically studied the self-medication hypothesis of drug abuse by examining drug effects and motivation for drug use in 494 hospitalized drug abusers.
(17) Inadequate treatment, caused by a lack of drugs and poorly trained medical attendants, is also a major problem.
(18) To investigate the relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) intolerance and the effect of gold use on the seroprevalence of H. pylori.
(19) A remarkable deterioration of prognosis with increasing age rises the question whether treatment with cytotoxic drugs should be tried in patients more than 60 years old.
(20) It was concluded that metoclopramide and dexamethasone showed an excellent antiemetic effect on acute drug-induced emesis, as well as on delayed emesis, induced by cisplatin.
Polypharmacy
Definition:
(n.) The act or practice of prescribing too many medicines.
(n.) A prescription made up of many medicines or ingredients.
Example Sentences:
(1) The concept of "polypharmacy", a pejorative and meaningless term, nevertheless gave rise to useful surveys on combined drug use, to methods of monitoring and controlling multiple drug use, and to a small number of studies which imply that a few psychoactive drug-drug combinations are rational.
(2) Methods to prevent polypharmacy and drug misuse have not been well studied.
(3) Dietary folate intake was significantly reduced in all the patient groups compared with controls (p less than 0.001 for the carbamazepine and phenytoin groups, p less than 0.01 for the polypharmacy and sodium valproate groups); a significant correlation between red cell folate levels and dietary folate was not established.
(4) Although drugs have contributed to the well-being of many older persons, some elderly individuals are at risk due to polypharmacy and age-related factors.
(5) In the unit where drug consultation was provided, there was a significnat reduction in extended antiparkinsonian agent use (p less than 0.001), multiple daily dosage (p less than 0.001), inappropriate anxiolytic use (p less than 0.01), polypharmacy (p less than 0.001) and too rapid change in medication (p less than 0.01).
(6) The literature is reviewed with respect to the incidence, causes and end-results of polypharmacy.
(7) Psychotropic drug use, psychotropic polypharmacy, and the repeat prescribing of these drugs were strongly associated with repeated overdosage and, under certain circumstances, with personality disorder, alcohol or drug abuse, unemployment, and conflict with the law.
(8) Symptoms of disease change with advancing age and diagnosis becomes difficult due to atypical and insidious symptomatology while the common occurrence of multiple pathology can unfortunately encourage polypharmacy.
(9) Overall, we observed the use of NL in all diagnostic categories and the frequent use of polypharmacy in patients treated with NL.
(10) In new referrals, there is considerable potential for monotherapy, and the avoidance of polypharmacy and chronic toxicity.
(11) Hence, one could argue polypharmacy has become the rule rather than the exception in cancer chemotherapy.
(12) Treatment can be complicated by the polypharmacy that is prevalent among older adults and by age-related physiologic changes.
(13) Polypharmacy decreased, and the elderly remained less medicated than adults.
(14) Altered drug metabolism, polypharmacy, multiple diseases, and errors in self-medication are all factors seen in the elderly which increase the risk for side effects from antirheumatic drug therapy.
(15) No single AED used as monotherapy correlated with increased risk of malformations, but polypharmacy with phenobarbital and phenytoin seemed to represent a risk factor.
(16) Patients with previous injuries, balance disturbances, and polypharmacy were at high risk, and intrinsic factors such as dizziness and impaired balance proved to be more significant as direct causes for the occurrence of accidents than environmental factors.
(17) Non-prescription drugs were noted in 97.2% of prescriptions in the polypharmacy group and 58.0% of prescriptions in the comparison group, representing 34.7% and 27.3% of all items, respectively.
(18) Prescription was inappropriate in 74.3% of cases and the prescribers indulged in polypharmacy, unnecessary and extravagant prescribing of drugs in suboptimal dosage.
(19) We compared pattern-reversal visual and brainstem auditory evoked potentials in normal controls, patients on monotherapy, and patients taking polypharmacy.
(20) Such polypharmacy is responsible for the development of suprainfections, some of which are caused by organisms very difficult to eradicate.