A nursing student is caring for an elderly man taking ropinirole. She is unsure what condition this medication is used to treat. After looking the medication up in a medication book or program, she finds that ropinirole is used to treat:

Explanation

• Ropinirole (Requip) is a dopamine agonist used to treat Parkinson's disease. It acts by stimulating dopamine receptors in the brain 

• Because it increases dopamine in the brain, an action opposite of antipsychotics, the side effects include psychosis, somnolence, and hallucinations 

• Antipsychotics are used to treat schizophrenia and antagonize dopamine, serotonin, and other receptors in the brain, which causes less of these chemicals to bind to the receptors and stimulate the brain. N-Methyl-D-aspartate receptors are targeted by medications used to treat Alzheimer's, not dopamine. BPH is treated with medications that antagonize alpha-1a-adrenergic receptors or drugs that inhibit testosterone conversion 

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