Drugs and the human body
- Created by: emews
- Created on: 13-11-17 17:16
View mindmap
- Drugs and the human body
- A drug is a substance taken into the body that modifies or affects chemical reactions in the body. Some drugs are beneficial, while others are harmful.
- Stimulants and depressants affect the synapses between neurones in the nervous system:
- stimulants cause more neurotransmitter molecules to diffuse across the synapse
- depressants stop the next neurone sending nerve impulses. They bind to the receptor molecules the next neurone that needs to respond to the neurotransmitter molecules.
- Drug testing
- Certain drugs can be extracted from natural sources, and have been known about for a long time.
- Clinical trials
- one group of volunteers - called the test group - receives the new drug. Another group - the control group - receives the existing drug for that illness.
- blind trials – the volunteers do not know which group they are in but the researchers do
- double-blind trials – neither the volunteers nor the researchers know which group the volunteers are in until the end of the trial
- Sometimes an open-label trial is carried out. Both the patient and the doctor know about the treatment.
Comments
No comments have yet been made