Jan 25, 2023
PRAZOSIN Alpha Blocker Mnemonic (Prazosin, Doxazosin, Terazosin, Tamsulosin, Alfuzosin)
In this episode, I go over how you can use PRAZOSIN to remember many of its indications.
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Auto Generated Transcript:
Welcome to the Memorizing Pharmacology podcast. I’m Tony Guerra, pharmacist and author of the Memorizing Pharmacology book series, bringing you mnemonics, cases, and advice for succeeding in Pharmacology. Sign up for the email list at memorizingfarm.com to get your free suffixes cheat sheet or find our mobile friendly self-paced online pharmacology review course at residency.teachable.com forward slash P forward slash mobile. Let’s get started with the show.
Alright, welcome to Memorizing Pharmacology podcast. Today I’m going to go over the prazasan alpha blocker mnemonic and talk a little bit about stems and indications and all that stuff. So first thing you need to know when you’re looking at an alpha blocker it’s probably going to end in a Z O S I N. I’ll talk about some other ones that end in O-S-I-N and how those are a little bit different but prazasin doxazosin terrazasin some people pronounce it doxazosin terazocin you know tomato tomato but these are three of the big ones that you’ll see when we’re talking about alpha blockers.
So the big thing is to take prazis in the word and look at the indication so the PR and prazasin for prostate helps with BPH or benign prostatic hyperplasia take the Raz Raz in prazasin for the ray nods and I know it’s spelled with an S but it’s actually sounded out like a z so R A Z and then the IN at the end for hypertension.
So again those can help you remember the kind of three main reasons why you would want to use an alpha blocker president has fallen out of favor because of the side effects but I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a minute.
So how does it work? So mechanism of action is Alpha blockade so we relax the bladder neck so the prostate vasodilation is how it helps with Ray nods and Ray nods if you don’t know what that is it’s fingers and toes kind of get really cold because I have some vasoconstriction so a little bit of vasodilation hopefully warms the fingers and toes up and then vasodilation again helps with that hypertension.
Okay, but the adverse effects also come from that vasodilation so reflex tachycardia your body’s not happy that the blood pressure is going down because your blood vessels are opening so your heart rate will go up orthostatic hypotension is that when you stand up it your blood pressure goes down and this often results in something called first dose syncope or first dose fainting or first dose phenomenon there’s many different words for it but on the first dose your body is just not ready for this and you faint or you drop.
And so we’ll talk about what to do about that so in terms of contraindications really kidney and circulatory disease is is really the big one where we can’t really use the alpha blockers but in terms of that first dose syncope or the orthostatic hypotension if you give it right at bedtime when somebody’s going into bed it’s not a big deal you’re not going to fall down out of your bed and then gradually sitting to stand that’s a big one with these sometimes oh you really have to be careful with it.
But then you know intuitively would think okay well if you’ve got elderly patients we really probably wouldn’t want to use an alpha blocker uh but let’s talk about those more specific alpha blockers tamsulosin and alphuzosin uh Flomax and your oxitrol because these really don’t have those adverse effects of you know as much as uh prasacindox as a centracin these are really favored for BPH patients are much happier with these medications.
And so they’ve gained tremendous popularity in terms of what they’re for it makes it pretty clear with the Flomax and your oxitrol you know so allowing you to have more maximum flow as it relaxes the bladder neck or urine control you know kind of something like that I.
And what I do want to mention though is that you know when you’re when you’re using those alpha blockers you’re helping with BPH in the short term so patient enjoys quotation fingers enjoys enjoy some relief from their condition in the beginning but you haven’t fixed it to fix it you actually have to reduce the size of the prostate.
And those are the five Alpha reductase Inhibitors finasteride prostate care pro scar is the brand name it also helps with hair loss so that’s why they call it Propecia the opposite of alopecia and then do testeride which is avidart these actually reduce the prostate size but these can take six to 12 months for maximum effect.
So that’s why you have the alpha blockers in the short term and then these will be added and then these help in the long term. So again a disclaimer this is just for informational purposes only it’s not medical advice if you have a medical condition consult a medical professional.
So thanks again for listening to the Memorizing Pharmacology podcast. Thanks for listening to the Memorizing Pharmacology podcast. You can find episodes cheat sheets and more at memorizingfarm.com. Again you can sign up for the email list at memorizingfarm.com to get your free suffixes cheat sheet or find our mobile friendly self-paced online pharmacology review course at residency.teachable.com forward slash P forward slash mobile. Thanks again for listening!
Like to learn more?
Find my book here: https://geni.us/iA22iZ
and subscribe to my YouTube Channel TonyPharmD here: https://www.youtube.com/c/tonypharmd
Here is the Link to my Pharmacy Residency Courses: residency.teachable.com