transitive verb. 1 : to make (a sensitized or hypersensitive individual) insensitive or nonreactive to a sensitizing agent. 2 : to make emotionally insensitive or callous specifically : to extinguish an emotional response (as of fear, anxiety, or guilt) to stimuli that formerly induced it.
What do you mean by desensitization of drug receptor?
Desensitization describes the rapid signal attenuation in response to stimulation of cells by receptor agonists. Changes in the coupling efficiency of receptors to signal transduction pathways and receptor internalization can account for desensitization and the development of pharmacodynamic tolerance.
What causes drug desensitization?
Drug Desensitization: General Concepts
Drug desensitization was developed due to the pressing need to reintroduce drugs in a safe fashion in patients who had developed both IgE-and/or non IgE-mediated HRs to critical drugs.
What is desensitization in immunology?
Allergen immunotherapy, also known as desensitization or hypo-sensitization, is a medical treatment for environmental allergies, such as insect bites, and asthma. Immunotherapy involves exposing people to larger and larger amounts of allergen in an attempt to change the immune system’s response.
What is the purpose of desensitization?
The goal of desensitization is to inhibit or interrupt the body’s interpretation of routine stimuli as painful. It does not assure that these stimuli will become pleasant or enjoyable, but that they will no longer provoke an extreme pain response.
What is the difference between drug tolerance and desensitization?
Desensitization can occur with the initial dose of a medication, while tolerance typically happens with repeated doses.
Why does receptor desensitization happen?
Homologous desensitization occurs when a receptor decreases its response to an agonist at high concentration. It is a process through which, after prolonged agonist exposure, the receptor is uncoupled from its signaling cascade and thus the cellular effect of receptor activation is attenuated.
What is the difference between tolerance and Tachyphylaxis?
Tolerance is the requirement of higher doses of a drug to produce a given response. When this develops rapidly (with only a few administrations of the drug) this is termed tachyphylaxis.
What is desensitization example?
For example, seeing a photo of what you fear might be a level 3, but actually touching the thing you fear could be a level 8 or 9. Next, you’ll develop ways to expose yourself to each level of fear. This is usually done with the help of a therapist.
What is desensitization biology?
Receptor desensitization refers to the decreased responsiveness that occurs with repeated or chronic exposure to agonist and is a general feature of most signaling membrane receptors.
Is desensitization good?
The Basics of Desensitization
While desensitization can be beneficial for your mental health, it can also be detrimental. If you become desensitized to violence or death, you could become less sensitive to others’ suffering, lose the ability to empathize, or start to behave in more aggressive ways.
How does desensitization drugs work?
How does drug desensitization work? Drug desensitization works by introducing the known medication into your body gradually to allow control symptoms to be activated. The staff at Advanced Allergy & Asthma is there to monitor allergic reactions that typically appear quickly, soon after you take the drug.
What is rapid desensitization?
Initially, a patient receives a shot on a weekly basis for several months until a maintenance dose is achieved. Then, the interval is gradually decreased to every other week and then once a month. A course of five years is usually recommended. However, rapid desensitization is used to speed up this process.
What is insulin desensitization?
Thus, one could define desensitization as a state of decreased glucose responsiveness when there is no global reduction in insulin or granule content of the β-cells. This definition is practically identical with that of the “third phase of insulin secretion” as given by Grodsky (18).
What are two possible mechanisms of desensitization?
There are two types of desensitization: homologous desensitization, which is defined as the agonist-induced reduction in cellular response that occurs when the receptor is stimulated only by this particular agonist, and heterologous desensitization, which is defined as the reduction in response of a particular receptor …
What is GPCR Desensitisation?
The desensitization of a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) response can be described as the loss of response subsequent to prolonged or repeated administration of an agonist (Hausdorff et al., 1990).
What is the difference between antagonist and agonist?
An agonist is a drug that binds to the receptor, producing a similar response to the intended chemical and receptor. … An antagonist does the opposite of an agonist. It binds to receptors, and stops the receptor from producing a desired response.
Is desensitization the same as downregulation?
GPCR desensitization is analogous to EGFR downregulation and it has also been proposed to be a feedback mechanism to protect against both acute and chronic receptor over-stimulation .
What is acute desensitization?
A temporary desensitization method involves the administration of small doses of an allergen to produces an IgE-mediated response in a setting where an individual can be resuscitated in the event of anaphylaxis; this approach, through uncharacterized mechanisms, eventually overrides the hypersensitive IgE response.
What is desensitization of hypersensitive teeth?
Desensitization. Desensitization is defined as the “gradual exposure to new stimuli or experiences of increasing intensity.” In the dental setting desensitization is used to gradually expose the young dental patient to the new dental experience.
What is desensitization in occupational therapy?
A desensitization program is designed to provide consistent stimulus to the affected area for. short periods of time, frequently throughout the day. These small bursts of therapeutic activity. shower the brain with sensory input.
What is systematic desensitization used to treat?
Systematic desensitization therapy is a type of behavioral therapy used to treat anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobias, and a fear of things like snakes or spiders.
What is the process of desensitization?
Systematic desensitization is a type of behavioral therapy based on the principle of classical conditioning. It was developed by Wolpe during the 1950s. This therapy aims to remove the fear response of a phobia, and substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually using counter-conditioning.