...forms and can enter the body in many ways: Inhalation – fumes, gases; Ingestion – liquids or solids by mouth; Injection – needles, animal and insect bites; Absorption – pesticides or herbicides through the skin and eyes. In the field of accident and emergency we see cases of poisoning that are both accidental and intentional. A massive 85% of these cases involve just three types of drug: Paracetamol 45% Benzodiazepines 20% Antidepressants 20% (Daly; Harrison, 2001). As the majority of our cases come from these non-corrosive types of poisons the author will concentrate only on overdoses of drugs, with the second section solely devoted to the most common of these; Paracetamol. Clinical Signs of Poisoning The majority of drugs effect the nervous system and produce some common signs: ▪ Slow, shallow respiration’s ▪ Lethargy and reduction in activity ▪ Vomiting and diarrhoea ▪ Loss of consciousness Some drugs though, such as Paracetamol are asymptomatic during the early stages of poisoning. Although in the majority of cases our treatment in the field for poisoning will be the same irrespective of the drug involved, certain signs can point to the type of drug taken. Below are some examples of these. ➢ Eyes: Pinpoint – opioids. Dilated – tricylics, cocaine. ➢ CNS Drowsiness – alcohol, sedatives, opioids, hypnotics. ➢ Confusion/Ataxia/Excitability...
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...Discussion Why it is important to measure paracetamol concentration in biological fluids Paracetamol is widely available as an OTC (over-the-counter) medicine and is an effective analgesic. Paracetamol is metabolised by the liver to N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine (NAPQI) which gets inactivated by liver glutathione(Jickells and Negrusz, 2008). Following a paracetamol overdose glutathione stores become in short supply leaving toxic amounts of NAPQI to bind to proteins and cause hepatic necrosis Intravenous infusion of N acetyl cysteine is used to replenish the glutathione stores and is an effective treatment, especially during the early stages of overdose. During the first 12 hours after ingestion no clinical features other than vomiting are...
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...MANAGEMENT OF THE CHILD WITH FEVER Aim To manage the symptoms of fever so as to reduce the child's discomfort. Key points 1. Fever is a sign of illness/inflammation. Uncomplicated fever is relatively harmless, and is fact an important immunologic defence mechanism 2. The cause of the fever should be the focus of treatment. Indications to intervene 1. The intervention has the potential to increase the child’s comfort level (or decrease their discomfort). 2. The purpose of intervening can be clearly identified. 3. Reduction of parental anxiety could arise from the intervention. 4. Any harm that might result from intervening (e.g. increased discomfort or risk of liver damage) has been balanced against the expected benefits. 5. Symptoms associated with fever which may respond to nursing intervention include: • Flushing of the skin • Skin feels warm to touch • Thirst • Sweating • Headache • Weakness and aching of body parts • Irritability or restlessness • Dehydration associated with vomiting and or diarrhoea 6. In the case of high temperatures disorientation and convulsions may also be observed PROCEDURE To enable the effectiveness of interventions to be assessed, a baseline temperature should be taken before implementing any care. 1. Assess the need to intervene Interventions should be directed toward reducing the child’s discomfort, not the fever. Interventions should always be assessed in terms of potential risks. 2. In the first instance: • • • Remove excess clothing or wrappings...
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...Unit 4222-616 Administer medication to individuals and monitor the effects. Outcome 1: 1.1: Legislations: - The Medicines Act (1968): This governs the use of medicines for human use and for veterinary use. - Control of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations (COSHH): This is the law that requires employers to control substances that are hazardous to health. - The Health and Safety at Work Act: This is the primary legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. The Health and Safety Executive are responsible for the enforcement of this act. - The Misuse of Drugs (Safe Custody) Regulations 2001: This controls the import, export, supply and possession of dangerous or otherwise harmful drugs. - Health and Social Care Act: This Act, the regulations and guidance are part of a wider regulatory framework that includes regulation of professionals such as Doctors, Nurses and Social Workers. - The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971: This act creates three classes of controlled substances, A, B and C. It lays out the range of penalties for the illegal or unlicensed possession and possession with to supply, for each class. - Date Protection Act: This covers any data that can be used to identify a living individual. - Hazardous Waste Regulations: These replaced the Special Waste Regulations 1996 in England. They removed the requirement to pre-notify the Environment Agency before the movement of any hazardous waste and include a simpler method for...
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...Pain Medications: The Way We Cope All of us have lived with pain sometime in our lives. We would all like to have a magic pill to take all the pain away, but in modern medicine there isn’t anything like that. There are several different types of medication that can help. Depending on the pain severity, medications vary from your nonnarcotic analgesic drugs which include (salicylate analgesic drugs, nonsalicylate analgesic drugs, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and narcotic analgesic drugs. In the following paragraphs I am going to explain the pain medication I am on for my Rheumatoid Arthritis which is Tramadol. Another name for it is Ultram and it falls under the category of a nonsalicylate analgesic drug. When you are in pain, the one thing you want is the relief to be fast. Tramadol delivers. It has been on the market for years, offering fast relief to moderate to severe pain. How come it is so effective? It is because it is a synthetic form of the more powerful opiate drugs. This gives you most of the pain relief without the side effects. Tramadol works by having your body change the way it senses pain. It does this by inhibiting your neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin, while it also “activates narcotic receptors in the brain and spinal cord to relieve pain.” (Turley, 2010) Tramadol binds to opioid receptors in the brain, which are receptors that transmit the sensation of pain throughout the body. My Rheumatologist started me on 50mg...
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...ANNUAL REVIEWS Further Quick links to online content Ann. Rev. PharmacoL ToxicoL Copyright © 1983 1983. 23:87-101 by Annual Reviews Inc. All rights reserved THE TREATMENT OF ACETAMINOPHEN Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 1983.23:87-101. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Queen Mary & Westfield on 03/14/11. For personal use only. POISONING L. F. Prescott and J. A. J. H Critchley Regional Poisoning Treatment Centre, and University Department of Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology, The Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, EH3 9YW, Scotland INTRODUCTION Acetaminophen (paracetamol, N-acetyl-p-aminophenol, 4-hydroxyacetani lide) is a non-prescription antipyretic analgesic that was first introduced into clinical medicine towards the end of the last century (1). It attracted little interest until it was found to be the major metabolite of both acetani lide and phenacetin (2, 3) and in recent years it has become an increasingly popular substitute for aspirin. Acetaminophen seemed to be remarkably safe when taken in recommended doses and formal toxicity studies were never carried out. In 1964 Eder (4) first reported liver damage in cats given 25-50 mglKg of acetaminophen daily for 26 weeks, and two years later Boyd & Bereczky described extensive hepatic necrosis in acute toxicity studies in rats (5). At the same time liver damage was first reported in man following acetaminophen overdosage (6, 7). The use of acetaminophen for self-poisoning has since...
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...not go directly to the fetus ductus. What acetaminophen do during pregnancy if ingested, it can cause the baby to be born with asthma. Some overdoses are potentially dangerous and can cause death. Some overdoses are low and you will have to do a cleanup. In conclusion, acetaminophen is also known as paracetamol. Acetaminophen has its positive side and also has its negative sides. The positive sides can be that it can treat most common pain in your body but the negative side it is that people sometimes use it to overdose them and use them to attempt suicide. Also you do not need prescription to get it. It has been proven that is also found in streams in low levels and this causes environmental issues. Works Cited Acetaminophen. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.knowyourdose.org/sites/default/files/acetaminophen_report.pdf. Chemistry, E. O. (2008, march 20). Acetaminophen (Tylenol): A Pain to the Environment. Retrieved from http://web.viu.ca/krogh/chem331/Acetaminophen.pdf. Hendrickson, K. (2010, may 11). Chemical Properties of Tylenol. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/121108-chemical-properties-tylenol/. Knight, K. (2002). Acetaminophen. None. (n.d.). Paracetamol (Acetaminophen). Retrieved from http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/mim/drugs/html/paracet_text.htm. ...
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...well controlled by her current use of paracetamol and diclofenac. The expected outcomes of Mary’s asthma treatments however, are not being achieved. Poor control is evident in night-time symptoms, and nightly requirement of Salbutamol (1). Beclomethasone has been prescribed at a moderate dose. While this dose is safe, it is too high to be prescribed without the pairing of a long acting Beta2 agonist (LABA) (1). The therapeutic guidelines stepwise approach to treatment recommends pairing an ICS with a LABA first, before increasing the ICS dose, in order to obtain adequate symptom management (1). If increased does is required combined therapy with a LABA should still remain. Therefore, while the does may be adequate, the current therapy is not effective. The expected outcome of St John’s Wort has not been achieved, the medication is not effective, and Mary’s depression resides. Mary has just begun Fluoxetine in the last few days, however depression pharmacotherapy can take 2- 3 weeks before patients start to see a difference, and 6 or more weeks before the full effect of the antidepressant is achieved (12). Currently Mary is confined to only pharmacological treatment therapy, which is not best...
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...that the brand with its new positioning will achieve four major objectives: a) Improve awareness level and build up image of "non-drowsy" cold medication b) Achieve sales target in2015, with increased brand growth c) Increase market share, mainly from key competitor d) Contribute a significant percent of total company profit (consumer business) 4. Marketing plan a) Marketing objective b) Target audience action objective c) Communication objective d) Creative strategy e) Promotion strategy f) Media strategy 5. STP &SWOT analysis Product 1. Panadol cold and flu 500mg / 30mg film coated tablets 2. Qualitative and quantitative composition Each tablet contains paracetamol 500 mg and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride 30 mg. 3. Pharmaceutical form Form: film coated tablet. Tagline/ Slogan ‘For the rapid and effective relief from cold & flu symptoms’ Company’s mission and vision statement: "Improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer." Introduction The Panadol Cold & Flu will be launched in order to refuel market growth of a product that has been slowing down in the face of increased competition in the cold medication market. With the help of meticulous marketing research, the company clearly identifies the unmet customer's needs. As a result of the product repositioning, the company will achieve success in both...
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...University of Phoenix Material Health Care Marketing Information Matrix There are a variety of information sources that may be used by consumers to obtain information relating to the marketing of health care products and services. The following matrix is intended to assist you in organizing the information contained in these sources. Consider the types of marketing messages that these information sources may contain and the reliability of the marketing message. Following the provided example, identify three examples of your own. |Source of Health Information |Type of Health-Related |Marketing Messages |How the Consumer May Assess the Accuracy or | | |Information | |Reliability of the Marketing Messages | |List the information source, such as Internet websites, WebMD, MedLine, or the news media. |Type of information |List at least one |List one approach the consumer may use to | | |provided by the source |marketing message being |verify the accuracy of the marketing message.| | | ...
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...Headache and Migraine Effects on Brain People have always wondered why they have headaches and migraines. With all the different causes of headaches, will a headache enable your brain functions? However there are many different reasons you can have headaches and migraines. Researchers say migraines and headaches start in brain stem. Female having headaches can come from there hormones, and estrogen. There is a type of headache called clusters headaches which make your eyes hurt. The hippocampus controls this type of headache. Also smoking and drinking can trigger this headache. Most people take over the counter drugs to treat a headache. If you use this method you have to take drug when first signal the brain sends. You can also take a nap to let your brain cure the headache inflammation. Another way is to put warm towel on your head so it cools brain nerves. This helps relieves muscles in your head which helps the headache. Migraines have effects on the brain stem. If migraines are painful enough it can cause brain stem infractions. Although migraines cannot cause permanent damage to the brain. Exercise that causes adrenaline can help make migraines go away. Headaches and migraines can be caused by cerebrovascular accidents. People don’t know what yet exactly causes headaches. It may be caused by nerve cells on the brain. It also can be over stimulated blood vessels, which leads to inflammation. Estrogen and progesterone can cause migraine and headache in women. Migraines...
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...Is Tylenol Really Safe 1 Is Tylenol Really Safe Pallis Wilson Professor King Devry University 2 Is Tylenol Really Safe Is Tylenol really safe? Tylenol an over-the-counter pain killer developed by McNeil Laboratories and acquired by Johnson and Johnson in the 1950’s. Its active ingredient consists of acetaminophen. Acetaminophen used to relieve headaches, muscle aches, menstrual periods, colds, sore throats, toothaches, backaches, and reactions to vaccination shots. Acetaminophen is in a class of medication called analgesics (pain reliever) and antipyretics (fever reducer). It is a known fact the drug gives greater results after surgery than before surgery. Tylenol purpose is to change the way the body senses pain and by cooling the body. However, Tylenol is the most highly recommended over the counter drug by physicians. Is Tylenol really safe? Being the most highly recommended over the counter drug, it does have risky side effects when taken for an extended amount of time. Many people from all ages use this medication to relieve pain. I for one feel the medication is quite helpful when experiencing some discomfort from pain. Any drug you may consume could possibly lead to side affect, especially when unaware of unknown allergies. Studies have shown due to its active drug Acetaminophen (Tylenol) has caused bodily, rashes, hives, itching, difficulty breathing and swallow, even death in the 1980’s due to evidence of the compound cyanide, yet distributors...
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...Chronic Arthritis in the Elderly Management 6/1/2013 By: Kendra Chapman Topic: Management of Chronic Arthritis in the Elderly University Of Phoenix HCA/220 Date: June 1, 2013 By: Kendra When reading this article on the Management of Chronic Arthritis in the elderly I found that when you hit the half way mark that arthritis is one of the main diseases that they might have to face and is also one of the number one causes that concerns the elderly. Arthritis is inflammation of one or more joints. A joint is the area where two bones meet. It affects the musculoskeletal system, especially the joints and it is the main cause of disability among people over fifty-five years of age in the industrialized countries. There also can be causes of chronic pain; advanced age increases the risk of certain health disorders that causes chronic pain. For older adults who live independently chronic pain can have devastating and wide-spread effects, threating the quality of life, imposing steep economics and social costs and also leading to personal strain. Compliance with drug therapy can be a challenge. Many elderly mistakenly think they should take analgesics only when pain becomes unbearable, and some fear they will become addicted to them. But the emphasize the importance of taking pain medication to keep ahead of pain rather than waiting until the pain becomes unbearable. When they use Nonpharmacologic pain management they become more open to using this method to manage...
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...JOHNSON & JOHNSON AND THE TYLENOL POISONING A bottle of Tylenol is a common feature of any medicine cabinet as a safe and reliable painkiller, but in the fall of 1982, this household brand was driven to the point of near extinction along with the fortunes of parent company Johnson & Johnson as a result of a product tampering case that has never been solved. On September 29, 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules that had been laced with cyanide. Investigators later determined that the bottles of Tylenol had been purchased or shoplifted from seven or eight drugstores and supermarkets and then replaced on shelves after the capsules in the bottle had been removed, emptied of their acetaminophen powder, and filled with cyanide. The motive for the killings was never established, although a grudge against Johnson & Johnson or the retail chains selling the brand was suspected. A man called James Lewis attempted to profit from the event by sending an extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson, presumably inspired by the $100,000 reward the company had posted, but the police dismissed him as a serious suspect. He was jailed for 13 years for the extortion but never charged with the murders. The response of Johnson & Johnson to the potential destruction of its most profitable product line has since become business legend and is taught today as a classic case study in crisis management at universities all over the world. Company chairman James...
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...Funmi Ajakaiye Application Paper 2 Pain Medication Pain is an unpleasant feeling which signals to an injury. Pain can be of different forms. It can be acute or chronic pain. Each and every person has a different tolerance level towards pain. It can be treated in different ways, but the relief from the pain differs from person to person. There are different kinds of medications that a person can take, which includes prescription or non-prescription medications. All medications regardless of what they are or what they do should be taken with caution. Non-prescription medications include “Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including Tylenol, Excedrin, Ibuprofen, Motrin, Aleve, Advil, etc. Then you have prescription medications which are Corticosteroids, Opioids, Antidepressants, Anticonvulsants (anti-seizure medications) and many others”. These can be used to get rid of the common headache, arthritis, or muscle and joint pain. In some cases it may take weeks before a specific medication starts to work, therefore making a person turn to another option (WebMD, 2008). Morphine is a narcotic pain drug indicated for the relief of pain in patients who require opioid analgesics for more than a few days. Morphine interacts predominantly with the opioid mu-receptor. “These mu-binding sites are discretely distributed in the human brain, with high densities in the posterior amygdala, hypothalamus, thalamus, nucleus caudatus, putamen, and certain cortical areas. They...
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