In this video, Cathy covers medications used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (donepezil), Myasthenia Gravis (neostigmine, pyridostigmine), and Parkinson’s disease (levodopa/carbidopa, bromocriptine, benztropine).
Continue talking about important nervous system medications. if you are following along with cards, i’m on card 82. we’ll be talking about medications that are used in parkinson’s, myasthenia gravis, as well as alzheimer’s disease. is sometimes used in patients who have donepezil helps to increase acetylcholine by inhibiting
The action of cholinesterase, which is an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, their cognition, and their ability to perform their activities of daily living, or their adls. keep in mind that this medication does not cure alzheimer’s disease. it is really just to help side effects can include headache, diarrhea, and
Nausea. and then my little trick for remembering this medication, if you look at the word, donepezil, you have that don, and then you’ve got pez. so alright. let’s now talk about some cholinergic medications that are used to treat myasthenia gravis. medications that fall within this class include neostigmine as well
As pyridostigmine. these medications can help improve the strength and mobility in patients who have myasthenia gravis. they are also used to help reverse the effects of neuromuscular blocking agents as well. acetylcholine at the receptor sites by inhibiting so my weirdo way of remembering these medications is if you
Look at the two drug names, they both contain stig. stig is a famous racecar driver in the show top gear. so stig, he’s coming in to save the day. he pulls up with his race car, and he’s like . and he blocks cholinesterase. and by blocking cholinesterase, he prevents the breakdown of acetylcholine and helps
With anticholinergic medications, you get a lot of drying side effects, right? can’t see, can’t pee, can’t spit, can’t poop, right? with cholinergic medications, everything’s going to be very, very moist, so you’re going to get side effects such as increased salivation, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, sweating, as well as
Bradycardia so just think of all those moist things and that will another cholinergic medication that’s important myasthenia gravis and to make sure that’s what we’re dealing with, myasthenia gravis, so if we give edrophonium to a patient who we suspect may have if we give edrophonium to a patient and they
Get worse, then that means they were probably having a cholinergic crisis instead. and then we need to administer the antidote which is atropine, medications that are used to treat parkinson’s patients have too little dopamine and too much acetylcholine. so treatment is usually centered around trying to bring up
These dopamine levels and decrease the amount of acetylcholine onboard. so our first class of medication that we’re going to cover are dopamine agonists. medications that and carbidopa, which are used together, are used to help decrease symptoms in parkinson’s disease including tremors and muscle rigidity. there are many,
Many side effects with these medications. so side effects can include nausea and vomiting, drowsiness, orthostatic hypotension, darkening of urine and sweat, possible psychosis, keep in mind that consuming high protein meals should actually consume a low protein diet to ensure adequate absorption of this medication.
That carbidopa and levodopa drive in their disease) to increase levels of dopamine. so both of those words in that -dopa, which will help you to remember that both of those things anticholinergic medication that is used to treat parkinson’s disease, which is benztropine. benztropine helps to bring down those levels of
Acetylcholine which helps to improve symptoms because it is an anticholinergic medication, it will have those drying effects. and my mnemonic again for how to remember those anticholinergic so you can expect side effects with benztropine urinary retention, and constipation. side effects, you should advise your patient to
Chew gum or suck on hard candy for that dry mouth, increase their intake of fluids and fiber pick it up with more important nervous if you’ve found value in these videos, be sure to like and subscribe to us here at level up rn!
Transcribed from video
Alzheimer's, Myasthenia Gravis, Parkinson's Medications – Pharmacology – Nervous |@Level Up RN By Level Up RN
