Blog Posts by Author
Recent Blog Posts
Active Bloggers
Feedback
We encourage and welcome any feedback about the new PharmQD site. This feedback will help guide future updates and improvements to the site. Please visit our contact form and share your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions with us.
MandyKate01's blog
..things that go through my head while I'm sitting in class not paying attention.
How the heck do people know this stuff?
11 Comments
So I'm sitting in my medicinal chemistry class and I'm learning about depression and antidepressant medication.
I'm just sitting here thinking how do people actually know this stuff? They could just be making all this up and I sit here and believe every word they say.
For example: SSRIs. How the heck do they know that on the structure of fluoxetine requires electron withdrawing groups at position 4, but if you add a group at position 2 or 3 then there is decreased selectivity. Who really knows that?! That's impossible to know!!! How can you possibly figure out that this little structure with this extra little moiety on it has decreased likelihood to bump into one receptor compared to another. Did a scientist sit at a table and watch this little structure and see where it would rather float to? Receptor A or Receptor B? I just don't get how people can actually know that!
I'm amazed.
Comments
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 1
I have to disagree with bscivally. Can we see the potassium/sodium pump being inhibited by digoxin and therefore increaseing intracelluar calcium? No. Does that mean digoxin does not treat arrhythmia? Of course not! Are antidepressants over prescribed? Yes. So are amphetamine salts and phentermine. Seems everyone is looking for a magic pill to solve all of life's problems. When a patient asks me to recommend a sleep aid I do not send them down the Benadryl aisle. I tell them "There is something going on in your life that is preventing you from relaxing at night. Until you figure out what that is and address it nothing will be solved."
Back to the origional topic. Can we see the electron withdrawing groups at position 4? No, probably not even with an electron microscope. Yes these mechanisms of action are theoretical and if we could actually witness what was happening we'd probably have to revise the theory. That doesn't mean all this stuff is "made up".
Location: clackamas, OR
Posts: 493
Most people come to the pharmacy for drugs. When you send them home without, they are dissapointed. Anyway, I like your answer regarding sleep aid. I have used similar answers in the past, but to no avail they still want drugs. I try to get to the root cause, not just a band-aid to cover up the ailment. They are looking for a magic pill(s) to take care of everything.
Location: Centerburg, OH
Posts: 1
Not gonna lie. I've thought the same thing in other classes too. What if one day they decide they were wrong or only partially right? Are they gonna say "just kidding - here's how it really works" or will they be too embarrassed and let us keep believing them?
Location: New Albany, IN
Posts: 120
That is exactly what happened with what was labeled as "protein binding" ... especially when dealing with giving Warfarin and some other drugs... Then they discovered CYP-450 and it was either a ON or OFF situation... but much more was involved that just protein binding. Then sometime later it was discovered that CYP-450 is not just a ON/OFF switch... but has many subsets.
What few people stop to consider is that... what medical science KNOWS today is dwarfted by what it DOESN'T KNOW or has yet to figure out !
Remember 50-60 years ago .. Penicillin was a WONDER DRUG ! and ~ 40 years ago I met one of the first heart transplant in the country.
Medical technology is hardly static
Location: Diamondhead, MS
Posts: 2
Mandy, I used to have those same thoughts when I was in school.
Location: El Sobrante, CA
Posts: 10
I think a good old fashioned conversation might have better depression-withdrawing power than the electron-withdrawing trifluorocarbon on that molecule. And an amine too? What's that about?
Location: clackamas, OR
Posts: 493
And going outside, exercising, fresh air, 8 glasses of water per day, good night sleep, time with your God and sharing with a friend who will hold you accountable will help more with depression than drugs.
Location: southside, AL
Posts: 9
a lot of it is made up - you try not to believe that is true at first - but once youve done this job for a while your learn that a lot of these drugs are just a way of stealing money away from the taxpayers of this country- these drugs benefit very few and are given to almost everyone
Location: Cleveland, OH
Posts: 2
Not to worry. I don't think you will have a patient ask you about this once you graduate. Just fake it til you make it.
Location: Sherman/Dallas,Texas.USA, TX
Posts: 2
It's really a good point ...!!!
1 of 2