• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.57-61
• /
• 2000

Gastrointestinal (GI) medications have been administered to many patients without any gastrointestinal diseases. The objectives of this study were to evaluate use of GI drugs and assess related factors. Medical records of 600 outpatients were reviewed from January 1997 to December 1997 at A Hospital, Kyunggi-do, Korea. Fifty patients every month among all outpatients were randomly selected up to total 600 patients. Surgical patients, visitors for regular health examination and inpatients were excluded. GI symptoms included nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dyspepsia, constipation, heartburn, dysphagia and abdominal pain. The prescribed gastrointestinal drugs were antacids. $H_2$-antagonist, sucralfate, cisapride, omeprazole, laxatives, digestive enzymes and antidiarrheal agents. Patients without GI symptoms were 348 out of 600 outpatients who were screened. Two hundred and eighty two of 348 patients $(81\%)$ were given GI drugs though they did not have any GI symptoms. There were no differences in regard to sex and age of patients. Most of medical departments prescribed gastrointestinal drugs for these patients. The most frequently prescribed drugs were in order of digestive enzyme, antacids and $H_2$-antagonists. In view of economic aspects, patients paid 12.28 percents of total cost per prescription for unnecessary medicines. The medical practice of prescribing GI drugs should be assessed to define appropriate subgroups to have benefits with prophylactic administration and to reduce adverse effects caused by drug interactions. Pharmacists would have a significant role to promote rational drug therapy.

• Health Communication
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.185-193
• /
• 2018

Background: Nursing college students are exposed to information about diseases or drugs, and are likely to have a distorted perception of drug knowledge or behavior. The study aimed to identify knowledge and attitude about drugs and current status of self-medication among nursing students. Methods: The subjects were 172 nursing students from a university in Busan. Data were collected with structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, and one-way ANOVA using SPSS 23.0. Results: Nursing students had a high level of knowledge about drugs, but attitudes toward drugs were relatively low. 83.7% of patients had experience of self-medication. The methods to acquire information for self-administration were 29.9% by smart phone and 27.1% by internet. The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) among self-medication drugs was the highest. The most common reason for self-medication was 'I thought it to be a mild disease', and the pharmacists were the most affected by choice of self-medication. The knowledge about drugs was statistically significant according to grade, school life satisfaction and subjective health status. The attitudes about medication were statistically significant according to grade and self-medication experience. Conclusion: Nursing college students need drug safety education to improve awareness and practice of correct drug use.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.81-86
• /
• 2020

Background: The number of patients with dementia continues to increase as the age of aging continues to grow. Psychiatric symptoms caused by senile dementia are controlled using antipsychotics. However, these antipsychotics can lead to Parkinson's disease, and abuse of dopamine derivatives such as levodopa among Parkinsonian drugs can lead to psychosis. Therefore, we evaluated the patterns of prescribed antipsychotics and antiparkinsonian drugs in patients with senile dementia. Methods: We used data from the sample of elderly patients from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA-APS-2016). We analyzed the patterns of prescribing antipsychotics and antiparkinsonian drugs including prescribed daily dosage, period of prescription, and number of patients with both antipsychotics and antiparkinsonian drugs for senile dementia. Results: Among the 159,391 patients with dementia included in this analysis, 4,963 patients (3.1%) and 16,499 patients (10.4%) were prescribed typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs, respectively. The most frequently prescribed typical antipsychotic was haloperidol (4,351 patients with dementia), whereas the atypical agent was quetiapine (12,719 patients). The most frequently prescribed antiparkinsonian drugs were in the order of levodopa/carbidopa, benztropine, and ropinirole. In addition, 1,103 and 3,508 patients prescribed typical and atypical antipsychotics, respectively, were co-prescribed antiparkinsonian drugs. Conclusions: Atypical antipsychotics were the preferred prescription in patients with senile dementia. The prescription dose was relatively low; however, the average treatment duration was mostly long-term. Selection of antipsychotics and/or antiparkinsonian drugs should be made carefully in senile dementia and the causal relationship of adverse drug reactions needs further study.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.145-161
• /
• 1998

The purpose of this study was to survey the actual condition of the Middle School Students on a Drug. In this study, 500 middle school students in Seoul response to a questionnaire which is composed to analyse two categories, i.e. general facts, the actual condition of drug use (the frequency of drug use, the degree of perception on drugs, the people using a drug surrounding the degree of purchase on drugs). And the students are classified by satisfactory degree on their home backgrounds, satisfactory degree on their school life, and school record. The data is analysed by means of frequency, percentage, chi-square test and Pearson's correlation using the $SPSS-PC^+$ package program. The results of this study were as follow : The frequency of drug use except a alcohol and the degree of perception on a drug among female students are higher than among male. The female students are more permissive on the drug use and they are also tend to think more easily the purchase of a drug. The frequency of drug use and the degree of perception on drugs are higher in the group of the lower satisfactory degree on their home background. Especially, there are many people using drugs surrounding the students in the lower group. The frequency of drug use and the degree of perception on drugs are higher in the group that has the lower satisfactory degree on school life. The students in the group having low school record have more dangerous thought about the use of drugs than the students of high record. The degree of perception on a drug is higher in a higher group, and the students in a higher group also think more easily the purchase of drugs. The percentage of students using drugs are not high, but the high percentage of students are interested in the drugs and they have permissive attitudes on drugs. Thus, the preventive education for drug abuse must be done rapidly.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.155-161
• /
• 2016

Distribution of various illegal or counterfeit drugs of seven approved erectile dysfunction drugs and their analogues has been increased, causing health problems such as cardiovascular disorder, tachycardia, headache, or vision disturbance. We used liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) to determine the erectile dysfunction drugs and their analogues in various counterfeit drugs. Eleven erectile dysfunction drugs and their analogues were detected, with sildenafil and its analogues being the most counterfeited compounds (73.8 %), followed by tadalafil and its analogues (25.4 %). The limits of detection (LOD) and the limits of quantitation (LOQ) of liquid-type and solid-type negative samples ranged from 0.1 to 3.3 ng/mL or ng/g and from 0.3 to 10.0 ng/mL or ng/g, respectively. The recoveries ranged from 84.3 to 112.3 % and 83.2 to 110.2 %, respectively. The contents of sildenafil and tadalafil in the various counterfeit drugs ranged from 21.0 to 947.5 mg/g and from 0.2 to 170.2 mg/g, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.171-177
• /
• 2019

Parasitic infections have remained a significant burden on human and animal health. In part, this is due to lack of clinically-approved, novel antimicrobials and a lack of interest by the pharmaceutical industry. An alternative approach is to modify existing clinically-approved drugs for efficient delivery formulations to ensure minimum inhibitory concentration is achieved at the target site. Nanotechnology offers the potential to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of drugs through modification of nanoparticles with ligands. Amphotericin B, nystatin, and fluconazole are clinically available drugs in the treatment of amoebal and fungal infections. These drugs were conjugated with gold nanoparticles. To characterize these gold-conjugated drug, atomic force microscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were performed. These drugs and their gold nanoconjugates were examined for antimicrobial activity against the protist pathogen, Acanthamoeba castellanii of the T4 genotype. Moreover, host cell cytotoxicity assays were accomplished. Cytotoxicity of these drugs and drug-conjugated gold nanoparticles was also determined by lactate dehydrogenase assay. Gold nanoparticles conjugation resulted in enhanced bioactivity of all three drugs with amphotericin B producing the most significant effects against Acanthamoeba castellanii (p < 0.05). In contrast, bare gold nanoparticles did not exhibit antimicrobial potency. Furthermore, amoebae treated with drugs-conjugated gold nanoparticles showed reduced cytotoxicity against HeLa cells. In this report, we demonstrated the use of nanotechnology to modify existing clinically-approved drugs and enhance their efficacy against pathogenic amoebae. Given the lack of development of novel drugs, this is a viable approach in the treatment of neglected diseases.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.80-89
• /
• 2022

The targeting of DNA methylation in cancer using DNA hypomethylating drugs has been well known to sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapy and immunotherapy by affecting multiple pathways. Herein, we investigated the combinational effects of DNA hypomethylating drugs and ionizing radiation (IR) in human sarcoma cell lines both in vitro and in vivo. Clonogenic assays were performed to determine the radiosensitizing properties of two DNA hypomethylating drugs on sarcoma cell lines we tested in this study with multiple doses of IR. We analyzed the effects of 5-aza-dC or SGI-110, as DNA hypomethylating drugs, in combination with IR in vitro on the proliferation, apoptosis, caspase-3/7 activity, migration/invasion, and Western blotting using apoptosis- or autophagy-related factors. To confirm the combined effect of DNA hypomethylating drugs and IR in our in vitro experiment, we generated the sarcoma cells in nude mouse xenograft models. Here, we found that the combination of DNA hypomethylating drugs and IR improved anticancer effects by inhibiting cell proliferation and by promoting synergistic cell death that is associated with both apoptosis and autophagy in vitro and in vivo. Our data demonstrated that the combination effects of DNA hypomethylating drugs with radiation exhibited greater cellular effects than the use of a single agent treatment, thus suggesting that the combination of DNA hypomethylating drugs and radiation may become a new radiotherapy to improve therapeutic efficacy for cancer treatment.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.55 no.2
• /
• pp.106-115
• /
• 2011

Systematic toxicological analysis (STA) means the process for general unknown screening of drugs and toxic compounds in biological fluids. In order to establish STA, in previous study we investigated pattern of drugs & poisons in autopsy cases during 2007~2009 in Korea, and finally selected 62 drugs as target drugs for STA. In this study, rapid and simple drug identification and quantitative analytical program by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) was developed. The in-house program, "DrugMan", consisted of modified chemstation data analysis menu and newly developed macro modules. Total 55 drugs among 62 target drugs were applied to this program, they were 14 antidepressants, 8 anti-histamines, 5 sedatives/hypnotics, 5 narcotic analgesics, 3 antipsychotic drugs, and etc. For calibration curves, fifty five drugs were divided into four groups of range considering their therapeutic or toxic concentrations in blood specimen, i.e. 0.05~1 mg/l, 0.1~1 mg/l, 0.1~5 mg/l or 0.5~10 mg/l. Standards spiked bloods were extracted by solid-phase extraction (SPE) with trimipramine-D3 as internal standard. Parameters such as retention times, 3 mass fragment ions, and calibration curves for each drug were registered to DrugMan. A series of identification, semi quantitation of target drugs and reporting the results were performed automatically. Calibration curves for most drugs were linear with correlation coefficients exceeding 0.98. Sensitivity rate of DrugMan was 0.90 (90%) for 55 drugs at the level of 0.5 mg/l. For standard spiked bloods at the level of 0.5 mg/l for 29 drugs, semi quantitative concentrations were ranged 0.36~0.64 mg/l by DrugMan. If more drugs are registered to database in DrugMan in further study, it will be useful tools for STA in forensic toxicology.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.57 no.1
• /
• pp.55-62
• /
• 2013

Objective: This study aims to assess the following issues - acquisition level in terms of the information on frequently used drugs of youth, access paths for the information, actual status of the use of drugs frequently used by youth, types of the used drugs, drug abuse among youth, and the consequent drawbacks. This study also takes aims at suggestion of correct role of pharmacists in consideration of drug abuse among youth. Methods: During the period from August 1, 2011 to October 31, 2012, a research design and a question development have been conducted. To the students of the schools that were randomly selected (elementary school's N=99, middle school's N=106, high school's N=115 and university's N=115), it was asked to complete given questionnaire from August 1, 2012 to August 31, 2012. During the period from September 1, 2012 to October 30, 2012, the questionnaires were collected back and the analysis and evaluation of them were carried out. Results: Drugs known to the respondents were a total of 115 different medicines and most of the drugs belonged to over-the-counter drugs. The most well known drug was pain reliever and the second most familiar drug was wound ointment. Most of the respondents found the drugs through direct use and advertisement. In everyday life, more than half of the respondents were using over-the-counter drugs as well as health supplements. The most commonly used drug was analgesic drug. It was showed that the respondents also frequently used the drugs for improving their grades and appearances. It was shown that among the cases of drug use, there were also the cases of misuse and abuse of drugs for the respondents or people around them. Reliability of pharmacists was shown to be high and many students were also satisfied with the pharmacists' guidance for medication. Conclusion: Currently many students are using different kinds of drug in daily life, and there is a possibility that the risk of misuse and abuse of drugs will be increased. Those age groups can easily engage in bad habit of drug use. Thus, promotion on accurate drug information has to be strengthened, and pharmacists are required to conduct correct guidance for drug user's medication in terms of use amount, usage, interactions among different drugs, and potential risks.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.270-279
• /
• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the new drugs that recently have shown rapid increase and provide solutions to eradicate them. Method: This study used the relevant preceding studies, statistics, and overseas materials to identify the new drug problems and suggest solutions. Result: Compared to the past, the numbers of criminals detected for the administration, distribution, and production of drugs are rapidly increasing. According to the statistical data on drugs in 2021, the number of drug-related cases decreased compared to the previous year. However, there are concerns because the amount of detected drugs increased more than three times, and the age group of drugrelated criminals are getting younger. Such results are largely affected by the spread of new drugs. In particular, it is deemed to be affected by the spread of new drugs, such as fentanyl, yaba, khat, kratom, etc., as well as the new psychoactive drugs and hemp-related materials. Conclusion: In response to spread of new drugs, this study suggests simplifying the temporary classification of drugs, enforcing control of foreign drug users, strengthening the cooperation with relevant institutions, such as Korea Customs Service and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and intensifying the punishment on the drug users in order to strengthen the countermeasure against the new drugs.