Question

The nurse is caring for a patient with metastatic bone cancer. The patient asks the nurse why he has had to keep getting larger doses of his pain medication, although they do not seem to affect him. What is the nurse's best response?

a) Over time you become more tolerant of the drug.
b) You may have become immune to the effects of the drug.
c) You may be developing a mild addiction to the drug.
d) Your body absorbs less of the drug due to the cancer.

Answer 1

The patient's need for increasing doses of pain medication is best explained by the development of tolerance, where more of the drug is required to achieve the same pain relief effect.

Step-by-step explanation:

The nurse's best response to the patient who has to take larger doses of pain medication without the desired effect would be: 'Over time you become more tolerant of the drug.' This condition, known as tolerance, occurs when a drug user requires increasingly larger doses of a drug to experience the same effects. This is a common issue amongst patients taking opioid medications for pain, especially in conditions such as metastatic bone cancer, where pain can be severe and persistent. Tolerance is not the same as addiction, though it may be a contributor to dependency. As for the chemotherapy, it is worth noting that while it targets cancerous cells, including those causing metastasis, it may also affect normal, rapidly dividing cells, leading to various side effects.