BIOL122: Mary-Lou Case Study - Neurological Disorders - Nursing Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Instructions for submission 

• To identify which question you answer, just write Q1 answer…, Q2 answer… this will ensure  that you don’t accidentally generate a high similarity score in Turnitin. 

• In order to show your understanding of the content and that you are answering the question  asked (rather than adding all the information you can find about a topic), we recommend that answers have a maximum 250 words per question. Answers that are excessively long  may be marked down as they do not clearly show your understanding of the subject matter. Note for some questions you can write well under 250 words and still appropriately answer  it, you will need to exercise your own judgement. 

• Importantly, not all answers will be found in a textbook or lecture. We are deliberately  asking questions that make you reflect on and piece together information you have learnt  throughout the semester. You will need to clearly demonstrate the links between some key  ideas. 

• Please note that we are looking for connections to be clearly stated, unambiguously written,  and well-reasoned. To do this you will need to ensure that your quality of writing is of a high  standard and makes your meaning clear. 

Hints/feedback from previous semesters: 

• Take care that your answers have the required level of depth—it will not be enough, for  example, to state that ‘drug X decreases blood pressure’; we expect you to explain how  those effects are achieved. 

• Sometimes words in assignments like this are being changed here and there to avoid  plagiarism. This is not true paraphrasing and very often the words used to change the  sentence alter the meaning or are inappropriate in the context. Any form of academic  misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, collusion or poor paraphrasing) will be subject to vigorous  academic misconduct investigations. 

• We are particularly keen on seeing evidence of your critical thinking skills—i.e., you are  supposed to assess all information you obtain from various reliable sources (textbooks,  lecture material, journal articles). Just because Google suggests an answer, it does not mean  that the answer is correct. 

Case study 1, part 1- Neurological disorders 

Mary-Lou is a 75-year-old widow, who lost her husband to cancer over a year ago. Her family and  friends have noticed that she has been very teary, has low self-esteem, and has lost interest in the  things she used to love such as going to bingo with her friends and gardening. Her family initially put  this down to the loss of her husband and thought it would pass with time. However, they are now  getting really concerned as they have noticed that her mood is not improving still. When asked by  her daughter if she is sleeping well, she says she has been drinking wine every night to help her go to  sleep. It also makes her feel happy and relaxed. However, what started as one glass a night has now  increased to two or three glasses a night, and she has also started drinking during the day. Her  daughter has noticed that her mum’s face always appears flushed and that she has had quite a few  colds lately. Mary-Lou is also losing her balance and experiencing mood swings. Her daughter is  worried that she is relying too heavily on alcohol and fears that she is starting to get short-term  memory loss from the alcohol consumption. She has been forgetting things such as where she put  her keys, whether she turned on the washing machine, or why she opened the fridge. She also tends  to forget the topic of conversation when talking with her daughter on the phone. Mary-Lou has also  been getting disorientated and getting lost when she goes out on her daily walks. A neighbor rang  her daughter one day to tell her that she found Mary-Lou wandering around aimlessly, and when  questioned what she was doing, Mary-Lou snapped and said she was trying to get home. Her  daughter decided it was time to take Mary-Lou to the local GP to work out what was going on with  her. 

After listening to the signs and symptoms Mary-Lou was experiencing, the GP diagnosed her with  several conditions and prescribed 50 mg of Fluoxetine/Prozac daily, a cholinesterase inhibitor, and 10 mg of Valium/diazepam daily. She was also given information on support groups and tips on what  to do given her conditions. 

Question 1 - 

Based on the clinical picture presented above, you should have identified several diseases/conditions we have covered in BIOL122. 

• Name two of the diseases/conditions you identified, and 

• List two characteristic signs or symptoms (per disease) that you noted in Mary-Lou’s history  and clinical picture. 

• Finally, explain the pathophysiology of both diseases/conditions you named (i.e., explain  the changes that cause the disease and relate the typical signs and symptoms of the disease  to the clinical picture). 

Question 2 -  

Explain the mechanism of action of two drug types Mary-Lou is prescribed with and describe how  these drug actions help mitigate some of her symptoms. In you answer, make references to the  pathophysiology of the relevant diseases.  

Question 3 – 

Based on her clinical picture and history, explain if Mary-Lou suffers from alcohol addiction. Support  your answer with relevant evidence from the case study. In your answer you should define physical and psychological dependence and explain if signs and symptoms of either can be observed in Mary Lou’s case. 

Question 4 – 

As part of her therapy, Mary-Lou takes a new hypothetical medication (called MedX), which has  narrow therapeutic index, therefore you (as a health care professional) need to exercise special care  when it comes to the determination of her required dosage. 

MedX is taken orally and has the following features: 

• In healthy adults, the absorbed MedX is subject to first pass liver metabolism, which  decreases its bioavailability to 10%.  

• The active ingredient that enters the systemic circulation is water-soluble and shows very  high protein binding: 98% of the drug molecules present in the plasma are bound to albumin  and, to a smaller extent, α1 globulin.  

• Most of the drug is excreted by the kidneys, where it is both freely filtered and actively  secreted in the proximal tubule. 

Based on the above properties of the drug, explain why you would recommend dose reduction in  Mary-Lou’s case. In your answer, explain four (4) age-related changes in the pharmacokinetics of  MedX to justify why dose reduction is necessary in the present scenario. For each of those age related changes described you will need to consider how the free plasma concentration of the drug  is expected to change in Mary-Lou’s case compared to that of a young or middle-aged individual. 

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