Which term is an oral hypoglycemic?

Which term is an oral hypoglycemic?

• A. Caine
• B. Zide
• C. Ide
• D. Dine

Answer: (C)

Suffixes in drug names can signal their class. For oral hypoglycemics, especially sulfonylureas, many drug names end in -ide (for example, glipizide, glyburide). These medications are taken by mouth to lower blood glucose in type 2 diabetes by stimulating the pancreatic beta cells to release insulin. So the term ending in -ide points to the oral hypoglycemic class. The other endings correspond to different drug groups—-caine indicates local anesthetics, -zide flags diuretics, and -dine appears in various other drug names not associated with this class.

Suffixes in drug names can signal their class. For oral hypoglycemics, especially sulfonylureas, many drug names end in -ide (for example, glipizide, glyburide). These medications are taken by mouth to lower blood glucose in type 2 diabetes by stimulating the pancreatic beta cells to release insulin. So the term ending in -ide points to the oral hypoglycemic class. The other endings correspond to different drug groups—-caine indicates local anesthetics, -zide flags diuretics, and -dine appears in various other drug names not associated with this class.