Drug Information

Drug Information

Question 8

Mechanism behind the Drug-Drug Interaction of Ciprofloxacin and Ferrous Sulfate

The effects of ciprofloxacin are not adequate if it is administered with ferrous sulfate. Ferrous sulfate possesses the tendency to decline the therapeutic effects of ciprofloxacin via inhibiting its absorption in GI. Ferrous sulfate make complex with ciprofloxacin. The complex formed is non absorbable in stomach (Parojcic et al, 2011). Hence, the simultaneous administration of iron or multivitamin and ciprofloxacin decreases the bioavailability via ninety percent. Therefore, pharmacists and physicians recommend patients to take ciprofloxacin either six hours after or two hours before administering ferrous sulfate.

Question 9

Use of Megestrol with Other Drugs

Megestrol is the analogue of the female hormone. It is a synthetic hormone and used to treat patients of prostate, endometrial and breast cancer (Ruiz et al, 2013). As it is a hormone, doctors must prescribe with caution. It is necessary for physicians to know all the medical history of the patients before prescribing the drug. There are certain drugs, which interact with megestrol, and thus doctors do not prescribe those drugs together. The drugs causing a reduction in the concentration of megestrol in the blood are indinavir and dofetilide. The other medications that interact with the effects of megestrol include estrogen in case of females whereas androgen and testosterone in case of males.

Question 19

Drugs in Pregnancy and Lactation

Drug treatment is the critical aspect of the health care system. All the pregnant women need medication at any stage during pregnancy. Similarly, the lactating women also possess the stated necessities. Breastfeeding or pregnant women cannot take all sorts of medicine because of the teratogenic effects of such drugs (Puranik et al, 2013). Most of the pregnant and lactating women take over the counter drugs and the medications prescribed by the clinician on a regular basis. There are certain drugs, which require proper lab tests to evaluate their efficacy, as well as safety in pregnancy. For the pregnant women, most of the physicians follow the categories of drugs proposed by Food and Drug Administration in United States. The clinicians make decisions on the basis of FDA classification in order to continue, initiate, replace or stop the medication (Buhimschi and Weiner, 2009).

According to FDA, there are following categories of drugs

Category A: the drugs of this category do not contain any harmful effects for human beings. Pregnant women take.

Category B: these drugs also do not possess any risk factor ...