USMLE Neurology 28 Pharmacology: MAC, Blood Gas Coefficient and More!

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https://www.patreon.com/LYMED Welcome to LY Med, where I go over everything you need to know for the USMLE STEP 1, with new videos every day.

Follow along with First Aid, or with my notes which can be found here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8uams03zbpcr333/AABmgSwTFPAhgsUqHKrmFyPIa?dl=0

*A mistake was made: I state malignant hypertension, but what I mean is malignant hyperTHERMIA.

Last video on neuro! This video will be on pharmacology, and we'll go over some pharm you'll see on the USMLE. We start with muscle relaxants like baclofen, which help with spasms. We then move on to drugs like barbiturates and benzodiazepines. These are drugs that work on your GABA channels. Barbiturates attach to the chloride channel of your GABA receptors and open it for longer, while benzos attach and open it more frequently. This potentiates GABA. We also discuss how to treat overdoses like flumazenil.

Bouncing to our next topic, hypnotics. These are sleeping aids and also work on GABA, albeit a different subtype.

Next topic: anesthesia. These are all drugs to help reduce our feeling of pain. Now there are many types of anesthesia. There are inhaled types, local types, and generalized. We will discuss the properties of these drugs and discuss pharmacology concepts like induction, solubility, potency, MAC (mean alveolar concentration), AV gradient, and blood gas coefficient.

After learning all those variables we move onto neuromuscular blocking agents. There are two types, non-depolarizing and depolarizing. Non-depolarizing drugs are competitive antagonist drugs and stop the depolarization of the neuromuscular junction. These drugs show tetanic fade. Depolarizing drugs are similar to acetylcholine, and they bind and cause a depolarization. However, it sits there and stops any subsequent depol. An important side effect to know is malignant hyperthermia which is condition that may be induced by anesthetics. The main cause may be due to mutated ryanodine receptors which release too much calcium and cause excess muscle contraction, cell death and hyperthermia. Treatment is with ryanodine receptor antagonists like dantrolene.

Our last topic is a quick talk on opioids. After that, we're all done! Thanks for hanging with me for the neuro block.