NUR 234 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Pethidine, Agonist, Partial Agonist
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We want a therapeutic response and work how we expect the drug to (cid:1) dose-response relationships relationship b/w the size of an administered dose and the intensity of the response produced. Determines: minimum amount of drug to be used, maximum response a drug can elicit, how much to increase the dosage to produce the desired increase in response (cid:1) (cid:1) A, efficacy, or maximal efficacy, is an index of the maximal response a drug can produce. The efficacy of a drug is indicated by the height of its dose-response curve. In this example, meperidine has greater efficacy than pentazocine. Efficacy is an important quality in a drug. Potency is an index of how much drug must be administered to elicit a desired response. In this example, achieving pain relief with meperidine requires higher doses than with morphine. We would say that morphine is more potent than meperidine.
