Therapeutic and nontherapeutic effects of dopamine..?? HAH?

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I am staring at an anecdote for my school which is asking me to interpret therapeutic and non-therapeutic effects of a med. I dealt with dopamine in clinical so i thought great i know what it`s therapeutically used for.. but i don`t get what they mean about non-therapeutic. Do they mean what could go wrong.. like side effects?? or abuse.. ?

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Specializes in SICU.

A non-therapeutic effect would be any undesired effect of the drug, or in short, yes, a side-effect. An example for dopamine would be tachycardia.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Dopamine........

Adverse EffectsCardiovascular: Ventricular arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation (at very high doses), ectopic beats, tachycardia, anginal pain, palpitation, cardiac conduction abnormalities, widened QRS complex, bradycardia, hypotension, hypertension, and vasoconstriction

Respiratory: Dyspnea

Gastrointestinal: Nausea and vomiting

Metabolic/nutritional system: Azotemia

Central nervous system: Headache and anxiety

Dermatological: Piloerection

Other: Gangrene of the extremities has occurred when high doses were administered for prolonged periods or in patients with occlusive vascular disease receiving low doses of dopamine HC

Medscape: Medscape Access is an excellent reference.. It requires registration but it is free, no strings.

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okay that helps to clear it up. I have all the negative SE in my davis`s drug guide but i just wasnt sure what they meant about nontherapeutic effects. Thanks

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