Chapter 12: CNS Depressants and Muscle Relaxants Test, Dantrolene, Pharmacology for Nurses
The key terms in this Pharmacology course include CNS Depressants, Muscle Relaxants, Patient, Hypnotic, Nurse, Drugs, Benzodiazepine, Pharmacology, Surgery, Flumazenil, Malignant Hyperthermia, Dantrolene, Pharmacology for Nurses: Practical Applications
The health care provider prescribes dantrolene (Dantrium) to a patient immediately after surgery. The nurse is aware this medication is used to treat what condition?
Tonic-clonic seizure
Malignant hyperthermia
Delirium tremens
Respiratory arrest
Dantrolene is a direct acting skeletal muscle relaxant and is the drug of choice to treat malignant hyperthermia, a possible complication of generalized anesthesia.
Which statement is accurate for the nurse to use when teaching a patient the difference between a sedative and hypnotic effect of a drug?
“Most drugs produce sedation at low doses and sleep, the hypnotic effect, at higher doses.”
“Whereas sedative drugs induce sleep, hypnotic drugs induce a state of hypnosis.”
“Sedatives are much stronger than hypnotic drugs and should only be used for short periods of time.”
“There really is no difference; the terms are used interchangeably.”
Many drugs have both sedative and hypnotic properties, with the sedative properties evident at low doses and the hypnotic properties demonstrated at larger doses.
The nurse would monitor an older adult patient prescribed a benzodiazepine for treatment of insomnia for which potential adverse effect?
Muscle spasms
Unsteady gait
Red rash
Shortness of breath
Benzodiazepine doses for children and older adults should be small with gradual increases to avoid ataxia (unsteady gait) and excessive sedation. Thus, these patients should be closely monitored for these adverse effects.
An intravenous dose of midazolam (Versed) has been prescribed for a patient before a colonoscopy. What does the nurse teach the patient is the most common adverse effect of this medication?
Dry mouth
Constipation
Chest pain
Amnesia
Versed is known to cause amnesia and anxiolysis (reduced anxiety) as well as sedation and is most commonly used preoperatively for certain procedures.
A patient is admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of benzodiazepine overdose. The nurse anticipates the health care provider will prescribe which antidote for benzodiazepine overdose?
Nalmefene (Revex)
Naltrexone (ReVia)
Naloxone (Narcan)
Flumazenil (Romazicon)
Flumazenil is the antidote for benzodiazepine overdose. The other options are only effective against opioid agonist effects.
What is not an adverse effect of Valerian root ?
a. insomnia
b. anorexia
c. hallucinations
d. hepatotoxicity