Study this Levodopa / Carbidopa NCLEX mnemonic and other mnemonics with Pixorize.
Levodopa and carbidopa are two drugs that are given together to treat parkinson’s disease in this demonic video we’ll cover everything you need to know about levodopa so you’ll be ready for the nclex it’s a beautiful fall day here in pixar’s national park where the park ranger is cleaning up some leaves before we move any further i want to point out that these
Leaves are our symbol for the drug levodopa leaves for levodopa makes sense levodopa is a drug that is converted into dopamine in the brain that should be easy to remember because levodopa literally has dopa in its name so giving levodopa is a great way to increase the dopamine levels in the brain notice how the park ranger is raking the leaves into a cardboard
Box as yard waste use this cardboard to help you remember the drug carbidopa because cardboard and carbidopa sound pretty similar right carbidopa is a drug given in combination with levodopa this works to help increase the amount of levodopa that enters the brain you see only around one percent of the levodopa administered naturally finds its way to the brain the
Rest is usually converted into dopamine before it can get there this is problematic because unlike levodopa dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier a ton of dopamine stuck in the blood can also lead to side effects which we’ll talk about later to fix this problem we give carbidopa which prevents the conversion of levodopa into dopamine carbidopa also only
Works outside the brain which ultimately results in more levodopa entering the brain long story short carbidopa increases the effectiveness of levodopa and reduces side effects i’ve already introduced you to the park ranger but i wanted to point out his rattling walker this old park ranger with his rattling walker is our symbol for parkinson’s disease park ranger
For parkinson’s and the rattling walker can help you remember parkinson’s disease often causes gait instability and tremors levodopa and carbidopa are currently the most effective treatments for parkinson’s disease parkinson’s disease is caused by low dopamine levels in the brain so these drugs work by increasing dopamine as we talked about earlier notably these
Drugs cannot cure the disease but they can help reduce some of the symptoms now that we know how levodopa and carbidopal work let’s move on to some of their side effects it can be a little spooky out here in the woods all by yourself did you hear that the park ranger sure did he’s seeing a ghost this ghost is here to symbolize the psychiatric disturbances that
May accompany levodopa these are things like hallucinations delusions confusion agitation and the like or maybe the ghost is real after all the ghost hit the man in the head making him dizzy here at pixarize we use dizziness to symbolize orthostatic hypotension let me explain orthostatic hypotension is when your blood pressure drops when you get up too quickly
This sudden drop in blood pressure often leaves people feeling really dizzy and lightheaded makes sense now this is an expected side effect of levodopa so just be sure to educate your patients to change positions slowly especially when they get up to prevent any falls the park ranger is so terrified of the ghosts that he can’t protect himself from getting hit in
The head let alone continue to gather the leaves this is what i call being paralyzed with fear maybe you’ve heard the phrase his paralysis reminds me of a kinetic crisis a kinetic crisis is basically a fancy name for paralysis and this happens when patients suddenly stop taking the drug levodopa and carbidopa must therefore be tapered off slowly in order to avoid
This paralysis alright that’s all for this demonic let’s recap what we’ve learned levodopa and carbidopa are medications given in combination to treat parkinson’s disease levodopa can cross the blood-brain barrier to enter the brain where it’s converted into dopamine carbidopa on the other hand is given along with levodopa to help more levodopa reach the brain
This drug combination is very effective in treating the symptoms of parkinson’s disease side effects include psychiatric disturbances and orthostatic hypertension levodopa and carbidopa must not be stopped suddenly or paralysis known as a kinetic crisis can occur instead the patient should taper off the drug slowly and now we’re actually done with levodopa and
Carbidopa see you next time thanks for watching for more videos like this one subscribe to our channel and check out our newest lessons for more resources on this topic including fact lists and interactive review images click the image next to the more hear arrow i’ll see you next time
Transcribed from video
Levodopa / Carbidopa Mnemonic for Nursing Pharmacology (NCLEX) By Pixorize
