A Patient Who Has a Long-Term Addiction to Opioids Is

question 9

Multiple Choice

A patient who has a long-term addiction to opioids is believed to have taken an overdose of barbiturates. The provider will anticipate which likely outcome?

• A) Severe abstinence syndrome when the effects of the barbiturates are reversed
• B) Minimal respiratory depression, because the patient has developed a tolerance to opioids
• C) Pinpoint pupils, respiratory depression, and possibly coma
• D) Paradoxical excitation resulting from a drug-drug interaction

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Definitions:

Depolarizing Currents

Electrical currents that reduce the membrane potential of neurons, making the inside less negative and closer to the threshold for firing an action potential.

Action Potentials

short-lasting events in which the electrical membrane potential of a cell rapidly rises and falls, allowing neurons to transmit signals.

Synaptic Gaps

The small spaces between neurons across which neurotransmitters travel to transmit signals from one neuron to another.

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals released by one neuron (usually the presynaptic neuron), which trigger a response in another neuron (usually the postsynaptic neuron); the chief means of communication among neurons.