Exam 8: Individual Variation in Drug Responses

A nurse is preparing to care for a patient who is receiving digoxin. When screening for potential adverse effects from this drug, the nurse will review which of this patient's laboratory results?

A nurse is teaching a group of women about medications. The women want to know why so many drugs have unpredictable effects in women. The nurse will tell them that:

A postoperative patient who is worried about pain control will be discharged several days after surgery. The nurse providing discharge teaching tells the patient that the prescribed Lortab is not as strong as the morphine the patient was given in the immediate postoperative period. Which response is the patient likely to experience?

A patient has been taking narcotic analgesics for chronic pain for several months. The nurse caring for this patient notes that the prescribed dose is higher than the recommended dose. The patient has normal vital signs, is awake and alert, and reports mild pain. What does the nurse recognize about this patient?

The nurse is assessing a newly admitted older patient who has recently lost 15 lb. The nurse notes that the patient is taking warfarin (Coumadin). Which laboratory tests will the nurse discuss with this patient's provider?

A patient asks a nurse why a friend who is taking the same drug responds differently to that drug. The nurse knows that the most common variation in drug response is due to differences in each patient's:

Which groups of people are especially sensitive to medication effects?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends genetic testing of patients receiving certain medications. Genetic testing helps prescribers:

A nurse is caring for a woman with breast cancer who is receiving tamoxifen. A review of this patient's chart reveals a deficiency of the CYP2D6 gene. The nurse will contact the provider to suggest:

A nurse administers the same medication in the same preparation in the same dose to several patients and notes that some patients have a better response to the drug than others. What is the most likely explanation for this phenomenon?