Pharmacology
Nov. 12th, 2004 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninevirtues85% on biomechanics quiz.
100% on pharmacology online quiz, after entire class argued with instructor about one very badly written question. (She made us mad. I thought it was just me, but listening to my classmates, it was clear that she made us all mad.)
See what you make of the following:
Fact: The half life of a drug is the time it takes for half the drug to clear your system. It is usually given in a range of hours, because not everyone has the same metabolism, physiology, kidney and liver function, et cetera.
Fact: Professor mentions Temazepam (trade name Restoril) in class as a good sleeping pill.
Now answer the following question. Given the following choices of sedatives/sleeping pills:
Valium (half life ranges from 10-80 hours-- you can imagine what happens if you take one per day...!)
Restoril (Half life ranges from 3.5 to 18.4 hours)
Halcion (Half life 1.5 to 5.5 hours)
Choose the medication that will most effectively help someone sleep through the night and leave them without morning "hangover" side effects.
If you picked Halcion, based on the idea that it will be mostly cleared from your system eight hours after you take it, my entire class is right there with you-- we all did too.
The professor, however, chose Restoril. (I suspect that her clinical experience tells her that Restoril works fine for people, so she prescribes it. However, her explanation and the parameters of her question led us all to choose Halcion.) After considerable discussion, she finally 'got' our point and agreed to give us all credit for it-- while noting that, in 12 years of teaching, she'd never seen people fight so hard over a two-point question.
100% on pharmacology online quiz, after entire class argued with instructor about one very badly written question. (She made us mad. I thought it was just me, but listening to my classmates, it was clear that she made us all mad.)
See what you make of the following:
Fact: The half life of a drug is the time it takes for half the drug to clear your system. It is usually given in a range of hours, because not everyone has the same metabolism, physiology, kidney and liver function, et cetera.
Fact: Professor mentions Temazepam (trade name Restoril) in class as a good sleeping pill.
Now answer the following question. Given the following choices of sedatives/sleeping pills:
Valium (half life ranges from 10-80 hours-- you can imagine what happens if you take one per day...!)
Restoril (Half life ranges from 3.5 to 18.4 hours)
Halcion (Half life 1.5 to 5.5 hours)
Choose the medication that will most effectively help someone sleep through the night and leave them without morning "hangover" side effects.
If you picked Halcion, based on the idea that it will be mostly cleared from your system eight hours after you take it, my entire class is right there with you-- we all did too.
The professor, however, chose Restoril. (I suspect that her clinical experience tells her that Restoril works fine for people, so she prescribes it. However, her explanation and the parameters of her question led us all to choose Halcion.) After considerable discussion, she finally 'got' our point and agreed to give us all credit for it-- while noting that, in 12 years of teaching, she'd never seen people fight so hard over a two-point question.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-12 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-12 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-13 01:21 am (UTC)Hopeful she will change that question in the future. Congrats on getting her to see reason. :-)