PHAR 300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Gastritis, Hepatic Encephalopathy, Benzodiazepine

• School: McGill University
• Department: Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Course: PHAR 300
• Professor: Edith Zorychta

Document Summary

Ethanol: cns depressant, a legal drug in all parts of the world, but still a very powerful drug, advertised to young people, especially university students. General effects: ethanol is a general depressant of the cns, sequence of effects as you increase the blood concentration of ethanol. At very low levels, anxiety decreases followed by disinhibition (inhibiting inhibitory pathways). This is followed by sedation and hypnosis (sleep). Intellectual capacity, judgment, voluntary motor skills, emotions, involuntary system: at low levels, you get disinhibition, which is quickly followed by major inhibition, general progression: behavioural symptoms, emotional instability, confusion, stupor, coma, death. The term dead drunk is actually accurate. If someone is comatose and you are unable to get them up, you have to take them to the er. Even if they do get up, you must stay with them because their blood level may still increase. Some people, even if they drink a significant amount, will never get blackouts.