Radiological technologists are more than often required to administer the drugs in the patients. Though a technologist does so under the supervision of a licensed practitioner, for ensuring patient safety and for competent professionalism, a technologist must know about drugs, their classification, mode of action, and adverse reactions. For instance, if a patient is already using anti-clotting medications like warfarin, then the radiologists should not use the IV mode to administer the radioactive substance, as it can result in excessive bleeding.
Many drugs directly influence the central nervous system, and this class of medication should be most well understood from the perspective of radiologists and image technologists. The CNS class encompasses antiseizure, antipsychotics, and antidepressants. Antiseizure are anticonvulsive medications, which aim to elongate the interval between seizures like phenytoin and diazepam. Antipsychotic drug class deals with hallucinations and paranoid behaviors like haloperidol, amoxapine, and pimozide. The medication generally requires weeks or months to be fully effective, thus it is most probable that the patient brought to the radiology department still exhibits fair symptoms of delusions and paranoid behavior.
Radiologists have to encounter this class most frequently. For carrying out the medical imaging procedures antianxiety medications are ought to be administered to the patients too for alleviating their distress. Medications like diazepam, clonazepam, and buspirone act on the limbic system of the patients and enhance the effect of serotonin and sedative neurotransmitters. For MRI and CT scan procedures, these anti-anxiety medications have to be given to the patients for ensuring a smooth procedure.
