Nonspecific and Nonselective drugs. What's the difference?

Can someone do a better job than my text in helping me differentiate between the two?

The definitions of the two terms sound the same to me.

Thanks all!

They sound like the same thing to me.

Drugs that affect various sites are nonspecific drugs and have properties of nonspecificity. Bethanechol may be prescribed for postoperative urinary retention to increase bladder contraction. Because bethanechol affects the cholinergic receptor, other cholinergic sites are also affected. heart rate decreases, blood pressure decreases, gastric acid secretions increases, bronchioles constrict and the pupils of the eyes constrict. Drugs that evoke a variety of responses throughout the body have a nonspecific response

Drugs may act at different receptors. Drugs that affect various receptors are nonselective drugs or have properties of nonselectivity. Chlorpromazine acts on the norepinephrine, dopamine, acetylcholine, and histamine receptors, and a variety of responses result from action at these receptor sites.

I'm not a whiz this is out of my pharm book. Hope it helps a little

hmmm, i did not know i was confused until now. omg, now i have something else to worry about. i better try and make some sense out of this but thanks for bringing all of this to my attention so that i will not feel flabbergasted if i see this on the exam. more java more me!

:smilecoffeecup: :smilecoffeecup:

drugs that affect various sites are nonspecific drugs and have properties of nonspecificity. bethanechol may be prescribed for postoperative urinary retention to increase bladder contraction. because bethanechol affects the cholinergic receptor, other cholinergic sites are also affected. heart rate decreases, blood pressure decreases, gastric acid secretions increases, bronchioles constrict and the pupils of the eyes constrict. drugs that evoke a variety of responses throughout the body have a nonspecific response

drugs may act at different receptors. drugs that affect various receptors are nonselective drugs or have properties of nonselectivity. chlorpromazine acts on the norepinephrine, dopamine, acetylcholine, and histamine receptors, and a variety of responses result from action at these receptor sites.

i'm not a whiz this is out of my pharm book. hope it helps a little

Let me put this a different way that you might understand. Think about your experience in high school and all the different people you came into contact with.

Selective - "we are special and only special people that meet our special rules are allowed in our group"

Nonselective - "we're not that picky and we'll let just about anyone into our group"

Nonspecific drugs affect different sites of the same receptor, while nonselective ones affect different receptors