Introduction of Therapeutic Drugs
Therapeutic drugs are those drugs that are applicable in some critical clinical conditions such as digoxin (to treat various heart conditions) and phenytoin (an anti-seizure medication). Therapeutic Drug monitoring (TDM) is essential for those drugs since it is the clinical practice of measuring specific drugs at designated intervals to keep a constant concentration in a patient’s bloodstream so that optimizing individual dosage regimens.
List of Therapeutic Drugs
Some common therapeutic common drugs are as follows-
- Digoxin/Lanoxin
- Phenytoin
- Lithium
- Carbamazepine
- Valproic acid
- Tacrolimus CO (Trough level)
- Tacrolimus C2
- Cyclosporin CO (Trough)
- Cyclosporin C2
- Phenobarbital
- Sirolimus (Rapamycin)
- Everolimus
Keynotes on Therapeutic Drugs
- Some common therapeutic drugs are digoxin, phenytoin, lithium, carbamazepine, valproic acid, tacrolimus, cyclosporin, phenobarbital, sirolimus, and everolimus.
- Digoxin/Lanoxin is commonly used for the treatment of various heart conditions like atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and heart failure.
- Phenytoin is an anti-epileptic drug and it is also called an anticonvulsant. It works by slowing down impulses in the brain that cause seizures and thus it uses to control seizures but it does not treat all types of seizures.
- Lithium is used to treat mania which is part of bipolar disorder and it is also applied on a day-to-day basis to reduce the frequency and severity of manic episodes.
- Carbamazepine is a type of therapeutic drug used to prevent and control seizures that acts as an anticonvulsant or anti-epileptic drug. It is also beneficial to relieve certain types of nerve pain (such as trigeminal neuralgia).
- Valproic acid uses to treat bipolar disorder and some brands are also useful to treat epilepsy. It can also be used to prevent migraine.
- Tacrolimus is a type of immunosuppressive drug that is applied with other drugs to prevent the rejection of a kidney, heart, liver, or lung transplant. It works by weakening our immune system to help our body accept the new organ as if it were our own.
- Cyclosporine is a steroid group of immunosuppressive drugs that are used in organ and bone marrow transplants as well as inflammatory conditions. e.g. ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and atopic dermatitis.
- Phenobarbital is a class of drugs known as barbiturate that acts as anticonvulsants or hypnotics.
- Sirolimus is a macrolide compound that is applied to coat coronary stents, prevent organ transplant rejection, treat a rare lung disease (lymphangioleiomyomatosis), and cure perivascular epithelioid cell tumors.
- Everolimus is a kinase inhibitor which uses to treat cancer by stopping cancer cells from reproducing and by decreasing blood supply to the cancer cells.
Further Readings
- https://reference.medscape.com/drug/lanoxin-digoxin-342432
- https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a682022.html
- https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB01590
- https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/lithium/
- https://www.drugs.com/carbamazepine.html
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/valproic-acid-oral-route/description/drg-20072931
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK544318/
- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/drugs/18614-phenobarbital-tablets
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/sirolimus-oral-route/side-effects/drg-20068199?p=1
- https://www.drugs.com/everolimus.html
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