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4 Manias, E. (2009). Pharmacology content in undergraduate nursing programs: is there enough to provide safe and effective care? International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46 (1), 1–3.
5 Pearson, M., Carter, T., McCormick, D. et al. (2018). Pharmacology training in mental health nurse education: justification for an increase in frequency and depth in the UK. Nurse Education Today, 62, 36–38.
6 Royal Pharmaceutical Society (2016). A competency framework for all prescribers. Royal Pharmaceutical Society [online], 2. Available from: https://www.rpharms.com/resources/frameworks/prescribers-competency-framework.
7 World Health Organisation (2013). The use of stems in the selection of International Nonproprietary Names (INN) for pharmaceutical substances. Stem book 2013 [online]. Available from: https://www.who.int/entity/medicines/services/inn/StemBook_2013_Final.pdf.
1 Drugs that affect the gastrointestinal system
Aminosalicylates
Antimuscarinics
Antispasmodics
Direct‐acting smooth muscle relaxants
H2‐receptor antagonists
Laxatives
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)
Note: antimuscarinics are drugs that can also be used to treat respiratory disorders (see Chapter 4), bradycardia, genitourinary disorders and Parkinson's disease (see Chapter 5) and nausea and vomiting (see Chapter 7).
Aminosalicylates
Aminosalicylates are anti‐inflammatory drugs given to treat gastric inflammation associated with conditions such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Aminosalicylates are derivatives of salicylic acid: a natural substance originally obtained from willow bark, which has been used as a medicine for thousands of years (Hippocrates had written about the therapeutic properties of willow as far back as 400 B.C.). The Latin term for willow is ‘salix’, from which is derived the word ‘salicylic’. The active ingredient in willow – salicin – metabolises in the body into salicylic acid. In the nineteenth century salicylic acid began to be produced synthetically. In addition to aminosalicylates, salicylic acid is now the basic ingredient in a number of related anti‐inflammatory drugs, including aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid: see Chapters 3 and 6). Aminosalicylates have generic names that contain the letters ‘‐sal‐’, resulting in names ending in either ‘‐salazide’ or ‘‐salazine’:
Balsalazide
Mesalazine
Olsalazine
Sulfasalazine
Despite sharing the same ‘sulfa‐’ prefix, do not mistake the aminosalicylate sulfasalazine for one of the sulfonamide class antibiotics (i.e., sulfamethoxazole: see Chapter 9).
Do not mistake the antihypertensive drug hydralazine for an aminosalicylate with a name ending in ‘‐salazine’. Hydralazine is a direct‐acting vasodilator of a type known as a ‘hydrazinophthalazine’.
Antispasmodics
Antispasmodics are drugs used to bring symptomatic relief from gastrointestinal muscle spasm in patients with conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (Ruepert et al., 2011). The term ‘antispasmodic’ simply describes what these drugs do (relaxing intestinal smooth muscle) and does not refer to just one type or class of drug. Medicines that have antispasmodic (or ‘spasmolytic’) properties include antimuscarinics and direct‐acting smooth muscle relaxants.
Antimuscarinic antispasmodics
Antimuscarinics work by reducing intestinal motility (see list of other antimuscarinic drugs in Chapter 5).
Atropine
Dicycloverine
Hyoscine butylbromide
Propantheline
Direct‐acting smooth muscle relaxants
Direct‐acting smooth muscle relaxants are medicines used to help relieve the symptoms of abdominal colic and IBS (Ford et al., 2008).
Alverine
Mebeverine
Peppermint oil
The suffix ‘‐verine’ is one that can be applied to any drug with smooth muscle relaxing properties (i.e., the antimuscarinic propiverine (used to relax smooth muscle in the bladder: see Chapter 5) and the phosphodiesterase inhibitor papaverine (see Chapter 8).
H2‐receptor antagonists
An amino acid called histidine is a precursor to histamine; with histamine‐2 playing an important role in helping stimulate gastric acid secretion. H2‐receptor antagonists (the ‘H’ stands for histamine) are a particular type of antihistamine that works by selectively blocking histamine‐2 receptors (also see H1 receptor‐blocking ‘antihistamines’: see Chapter 5).
H2‐receptor antagonists reduce gastric acid secretions and so help protect the stomach's mucosal lining from acid erosion (Keshav and Bailey, 2013, pp. 43, 73–75). Cimetidine – the first H2‐receptor antagonist – was introduced in 1976 and soon became the first prescription drug in the world to achieve annual sales worth more than one billion dollars, ushering in (for better or worse) the era of ‘blockbuster’ selling drugs.
H2‐receptor antagonists are prescribed to treat gastrointestinal disorders such as gastric or duodenal ulcers, oesophageal reflux and dyspepsia (Puttmann and Roett, 2011). H2‐receptor antagonists (often referred to as ‘H2 blockers’) can be recognised by generic drug names ending with the letters ‘‐tidine’: