Toxicology Questions And Answers

[Nickie Koskinen]

LinkedInand 3rd parties use essential and non-essential cookies to provide, secure, analyze and improve our Services, and to show you relevant ads (including professional and job ads) on and off LinkedIn. Learn more in our Cookie Policy.

These articles provide comprehensive quick reference for various examinations. However, it should be noted that this series serve only as a supplement and not as a replacement for any textbook and class room learning.

The series is expected to cover several topics such as general toxicology, principles of toxicology, risk assessment, disposition, mechanism of toxicity, toxic effects of various xenobiotics, poisonings of poisonous and venomous organisms, plant toxins, poisonous and food poisonings, radiation hazards and, abuse of drugs. The following series will also the adverse effects on environment and ecosystem exposed to various toxicants and poisonings as relevant to domestic and other animals.

Each article will be in the format of questions and answers, multiple choice questions, true and false statements or correct/ incorrect statements, fill in blanks, and matching the statements that will be useful for students, teachers and practicing in medical sciences, toxicology, pharmacology, medicine, pharmacy, environmental toxicology and in veterinary sciences.

A good alternative to be used for various courses and an excellent contribution for the students who needs a study aid for toxicology but wants more than a textbook as they need a self-testing regime.

Thus, the main strength of the series will reflect the breadth and multi-disciplinary nature of toxicology with illustrative approach to the subject that is needed to improve engagement with and understanding of the subject having a very wide audience.

Claude Bernard (1813-1878) was a French physiologist who is considered the "Father" of Modern Experimental Physiology. Claude Bernard's first important works were carried out on the physiology of digestion, particularly the rle of the pancreas exocrine gland, the gastric juices and of the intestines. In addition to this, Bernard also made other important contributions to the neurosciences.

Poison is any solid, liquid, gas that, when introduced into or applied to the body, can interfere with the life processes of cells of the organism. These effects occur by its own inherent chemical properties without acting mechanically and regardless of temperature.

It is toxicant that affects only specific organs or tissues (may be called tissue toxicant) while not producing damage to the body as a whole. For example, benzene is a specific organ toxicant in that it is primarily toxic to the blood-forming tissues.

Occupational (Industrial) toxicology is concerned with health effects from exposure to chemicals in the workplace. It deals with the clinical study of workers of industries and environment around him.

Recently toxicology has been created, which prompted this question. Originally I wanted to suggest renaming phamacology into phamacology-toxicology as the lines are especially blurry (in terms of chemistry).

At the time we decided to only merge drugs (main) with pharmaceuticals (synonym), but left out pharmacology and medicinal chemistry to revisit later.

As our site has matured quite a bit (we graduated in the meantime) I'd like to revisit this question. I am not en expert on the field and hence I am not sure what to do. Two options were presented at the time:

Klaus-Dieter Warzecha:

As far as the interaction of drugs with living organsims is concerned, medicinal-chemistry seems fully sufficient to cover various aspects, such as uses in folk medicine, metabolism, kinetics, etc. Consequently, pharmacology should be merged into it.

Greg E.:

In short, the semantic content and organizational utility of the tag [ref:pharmacology] in the context of this site is questionable, I think, but I'm also not sure that it exclusively overlaps strongly enough with any single other tag to make it a synonym.

Definition of Pharmacology (from nature.com)Pharmacology is a branch of biomedical science, encompassing clinical pharmacology, that is concerned with the effects of drugs/pharmaceuticals and other xenobiotics on living systems, as well as their development and chemical properties.

Definition of Toxicology (from nature.com)

Toxicology is the scientific discipline concerned with the detection, evaluation and prevention of the toxic effects of substances that humans are exposed to. It has a key role in the development of new drugs, which are evaluated for potential toxic effects in preclinical studies, clinical trials and post-marketing studies with the aim of ensuring that their benefits outweigh their risks.

Pharmacology has now gathered 33 questions, medicinal-chemistry is clocking in on 62. Currently only 3 questions are overlapping. I didn't have time to go through all of them, but those I have read (about 20 score>3 questions) could (from my point of view) be reasonably tagged with either of the tags (if they were correctly tagged in the first place).

Medicinal chemistry definitely needs to be kept separate from the other two, which are slightly more related to biology. A lot of med chem is about the route towards designing a drug, which can include many things a pharmacologist would not really think about, such as traditional synthetic chemistry, correlation of molecular structure to bioactivity, molecular docking, etc.

Regarding toxicology and pharmacology, the two fields are different, and the definitions you quoted already indirectly demonstrate it. Pharmacology is essentially the study of drugs, but it is not limited to their toxicity. Toxicology is essentially the study of poisons, but it is not limited to drugs, because there are lots of poisons which are not drugs.

I agree that on Chemistry there is no reason to have separate tags for such niche fields. However, I also don't think that it is appropriate to merge tags which technically mean different things, even if they use similar concepts (physics and chemistry both use calculus, doesn't mean they're the same thing).

I will draw on my education experience (Germany): for chemists, a course in toxicology was (legally) required, which was taught by the Pharmacology section of the combined Chemistry & Pharmacology department and attended by the pharmacology students (who merely had to sit through it). In it, the lecturers noted more than once (for the benefit of the pharmacology students) that while the terms were different, the concepts (available concentration in bloodstream, minimal effective dose etc.) were practically identical.

Although toxicology is covered in some pharmacology courses, its much broader than it looks and has many subsections. Additionally, medicinal-chemisty looks fine and should not be merged with anything.

the science that deals with the chemical nature and reactions of toxic substances, their origins and uses, and the chemical aspects of their exposure, transformation, and elimination by biological systems.

My other suggestion, rather use both tags i.e pharmacology and toxicology or biochemistry and toxicology (just to be more specific) just as organic-chemistry can be used with other various tags such as alcohols, aromatic-compounds

I stand by the three fields being different. However, from our point of view as SE users, it could well be argued that: anything that falls under pharmacology but not medicinal-chemistry is very likely to be off-topic on chem.SE anyway. So, why keep the tag?

This document contains multiple choice questions about toxicology. Question 1 is about iron overdose and the correct answer is d) that desferrioxamine given to a severe overdose will produce rose colored urine. Question 2 asks about which statement about arrhythmias from overdose is false, and the answer is b) that cardioversion is recommended for digoxin overdose arrhythmias. Question 3 asks about cyanide overdose and the false statement is c) that cobalt EDTA is a safe treatment for overdose.Read less

Toxicology is the study of adverse effects of drugs and chemicals on biological systems. Forensic toxicology involves the application of toxicology for the purposes of the law or in a medicolegal context. A forensic toxicologist answers questions such as: Did prescription or illegal drugs cause or contribute to this person's death?; Was this person impaired by drugs or alcohol while they were driving? or Was a drug used to facilitate a criminal act?

Answering questions like these often requires forensic toxicologists to work with, and share information with, law enforcement, forensic pathologists, death investigators, crime scene investigators, clinicians, other forensic scientists, and legal professionals.

The field of forensic toxicology involves three main sub-disciplines: postmortem forensic toxicology, human performance toxicology, and forensic drug testing. As with all of the forensic disciplines, there is a strong emphasis on record keeping, chain-of custody documentation, stringent quality control, and data management.

In forensic toxicology, the interpretation and communication of the results can be more challenging than the analysis itself. The results obtained are often determined using scientific tests and procedures that are complex and difficult for most juries and lawyers to understand. Therefore, a toxicologist must have strong communication skills so the information can be presented fairly and clearly in court.

A bachelor's degree in the life or physical sciences is the first step toward pursuing a career in forensic toxicology. A solid background in chemistry and coursework in pharmacology and toxicology are needed. Many forensic toxicologists have masters or doctoral degrees. Some enter toxicology after working in, or pursuing education in, other areas such as medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, or clinical chemistry. While relevant educational requirements are necessary to enter the field of forensic toxicology, training in the laboratory furthers an individual's knowledge, experience, and ability to provide interpretation of the results. The American Board of Forensic Toxicology offers professional certification to scientists working in the area of forensic toxicology.

3a8082e126