Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) (Nursing)

00:01 Hi.

00:02 Welcome to our video on adverse drug reactions.

00:05 I’m going to talk about some pretty horrible things in this video.

00:08 So, I just want you to brace yourself, but these are things that can happen to our patients.

00:13 So, you want to know what the possible reactions could be and what you need to do to help your patient stay safe.

00:18 Okay, now let’s start with a question.

00:20 What do you think nursing students always want to know but are afraid to ask me? I mean, one day I walked into class, and I could hear the students whispering, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and they said, “You ask her.” “No. You ask her.” “No. You ask her.” Finally, I said, “Somebody just ask me the question.” Well, what it was was students wanted to know what happens if you drink an energy drink like Red Bull and alcohol at the same time.

00:45 Well, it was the perfect lead into our discussion because that day in class we were talking about adverse drug reactions.

00:51 So, we’re going to lead off with what actually happens with alcohol because there’s a whole list of things that can happen.

00:57 Now, if you’re wondering about the answer to that Red Bull with alcohol question, the answer is don’t do it because the stimulus that comes from the energy drink, you don’t get the buzz from the alcohol, so you’re likely to overdo it on alcohol.

01:09 So, bottom line, don’t drink an energy drink and alcohol together.

01:14 Okay, now let’s talk about some real alcohol reactions.

01:17 Now, when we say disulfiram, (you see that word up there in the headline) alcohol with certain medications will give you a disulfiram-like reaction.

01:25 Well, that doesn’t sound that bad until you understand what a disulfiram-like reaction is.

01:31 Disulfiram is a drug that we give to people who are trying to stay off alcohol, so when they take this drug every day and it helps them stay away from the temptation of alcohol, because if they drink alcohol with it, they get really, really sick.

01:45 And I am not exaggerating when I say sick.

01:48 They’re flushed, they’re nauseated, they’re sweating, they have anxiety, they have horrible cramps, and even some tachycardia (a really fast heartbeat), and maybe even a low blood pressure.

01:59 So, this is not something you want to experience which is why it’s helpful for someone who has decided they want to stop drinking alcohol to take that medication every day.

02:08 It is a strong deterrent to taking it, but there’s other medications, when mixed with alcohol, will give you the same reaction.

02:15 So, our job as nurses is to educate patients to not drink alcohol when taking these specific medications.

02:22 Okay, let’s take a look at the specific medications.

02:26 Medications that can cause this type of reaction is an antibiotic (you’ll see the name there).

02:31 Now, I don’t want you to focus too much on memorizing names here.

02:34 Just hang onto this, we’re going to introduce you to topics and when we hit these other antibiotics in other presentations, we’ll stress that again.

02:41 But metronidazole is one of the antibiotics, if you drink alcohol while you’re on this 7- to 14-day course of the antibiotic, you’re going to have that horrible reaction.

02:52 Bactrim is an example of another antibiotic.

02:54 There’s another antibiotic or an antiprotozoal, called tinidazole.

02:58 So, again, keep in mind, you want your patients to avoid this type of reaction, so it’s your job when you’re practicing to recognize this as a possibility and make sure they know it.

03:10 Now, we’ve added a couple other categories there on the bottom of the slide.

03:13 So, like cardiovascular medications (we’ve even listed some names there).

03:17 So, mostly if I was going to try to group these together to try to remember, I’m going to think about antibiotics, antiprotozoals, and some of the cardiovascular medications.

03:28 Now, pause for just a minute and see if you can try and list in your mind 5 or 6 of the symptoms of a disulfiram-like reaction.