Hey, guys...
So day before yesterday, there was my Forensic Medicine viva and the examiner asked me the causes of impotency. And I immediately started blabbing about Stress, Phimosis, Hypospadias, Peyronie's disease, I even mentioned Parkinson's disease. The examiner interjected me and asked the most common cause. I guessed heart disease and the related medications and he denied. Then he said it is excess consumption of alcohol and asked me not to underestimate alcohol and it's various interactions and correlations ever.
So here I am, trying to summarize the interactions of alcohol with the major classes of drugs.
Disulfiram-like Reaction
I am not going to go into the details of the mechanism. Just, in brief, Disulfiram-like reactions entails
flushing(due to dilatation of blood vessels), nausea, vomiting, sweating, hypotension, so reflex tachycardia which can be deleterious to a patient of coronary artery disease(CAD).
Now let us try to use
CAD as a mnemonic here while learning certain other things as well.
1. It starts with
C, a lot of drugs starting with
C have this reaction, like
Cefamandole, Cefoperazone, Cefotetan, Chloramphenicol.
2. Patients with CAD have
Pain, so let us now manage that some analgesics starting with
P(for Pain),
Phenylbutazone, Phenacetin.
3. Patients with CAD can have attacks of Angina, for which we give
Nitrates, so let us take that. Drugs with
Nitro group:
Nitroglycerin, Isosorbide dinitrate, Nitrofurantoin, Metronidazole. Why leave
Sulpha group behind?
Drugs with Sulpha group:
Sulphamethoxazole, Sulfisoxazole.
4. CAD often co-exists with
Diabetes Mellitus(DM). So let us manage that with some Sulfonylureas;
Tolbutamide, Tolazamide, Chlorpropamide and even the 2nd gen drug
Glyburide.
5. Patients with DM are
immunosuppressed. Hence, they are predisposed to
Mycoses and TB. Manage them with
Griseofulvin and Isoniazid respectively.
That's all! :)
Do go through the other posts in this series,
2nd Part,
3rd Part, and
4th Part
-VM