Chloroquine is a drug used to treat malaria. It also has anti-inflammatory effects that make it useful for treating autoimmune diseases like lupus. In this video, I'll teach you my visual mnemonic to help you remember everything you need to know about chloroquine for test day. Let's get started. Today, we're here with my friend who just got a new puppy.
Everybody knows puppies are messy, so my friend here was prepared with a full bottle of chloro-clean. This chloro-clean can clean anything. You know, chloro-clean reminds me of the drug chloroquine.
Sounds pretty similar, right? Chloroquine and its counterpart, hydroxychloroquine, might show up on your NCLEX, so let's start by talking about where these drugs are used in the clinical setting. This pup here might be more than my friend can handle.
It has chewed up the male. This male is our symbol for malaria. Get it? Male for malaria. Chloroquine is used to treat malaria, and may be used prophylactically as active treatment or to prevent relapse of malaria.
Just remember the puppy chewing up the male to help you remember malaria. Got that? Sure is one cute puppy.
The puppy is a husky, and huskies are known for looking pretty similar to wolves. When you think of this wolf-looking husky, I want you to remember that chloroquine also treats the autoimmune disease lupus. After all, lupus is Latin for wolf.
Chloroquine has anti-inflammatory effects that are useful in treating the skin and joint inflammation associated with lupus. After chewing up all that mail, the dog started vomiting all over the house. Yep, it's time to break out the chloroquine.
My friend here doesn't seem to be handling the smell of the dog vomit very well. In fact, it looks like she might vomit herself. All of this stomach sickness reminds me that chloroquine can cause gastrointestinal upset, which manifests with symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and lack of appetite.
If this happens to your patient, encourage them to take chloroquine with food, as that may minimize the GI side effects. In her hurry to pour the chloro-clean and clean the vomit, my friend has splashed some of the chloro-clean up into her eye. Ouch, that looks like it burns. One big adverse effect of chloroquine is that it can cause retinal damage, just like this chloro-clean is splashing up and damaging my friend's eyes.
Patients taking chloroquine for an extended period need to be sure to receive regular eye exams to assess for potential damage. If the patient notices any vision changes, they should notify their provider. If you get asked a question about chloroquine on the NCLEX, there's a good chance it will be about this.
So, just remember that chloroquine can cause eye damage. Alright, you've made it through the whole mnemonic. Let's summarize. Chloroquine is a medication used to treat both malaria and systemic lupus erythematosus. One side effect is GI upset, and if this occurs, the patient may take the medication with food to minimize the symptoms.
Chloroquine can also cause retinal damage, so encourage frequent eye exams and tell the patient to immediately report any change in vision. Alright, that's it for chloroquine. With this mnemonic, you'll be sure to nail any question about chloroquine on test day.
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