Professional Courses

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this course, each student should be able to:

Describe the basic pharmacokinetic principles governing uptake, distribution, metabolism and elimination of drugs and apply these principles in the therapeutic management of patients.

Describe and explain pharmacodynamic concepts of drug-receptor interaction to accurately predict drug responses at all levels of biological organization.

Interpret pharmacological data such as dose-response curves in the context of optimizing drug therapy.

Differentiate terms such as efficacy, potency and therapeutic index as they relate to drug therapy.

Demonstrate an understanding of the basic mechanisms of drug-induced toxicity and drug-drug interactions, and develop appropriate approaches to their management.

Demonstrate an understanding of the basic mechanisms involved in modification of drug responses by disease, genetic background, sex and age.

Apply the above concepts to major drug groups in the development of the most effective and safe treatment regimen for patients presenting with a variety of therapeutic problems.

Describe the effects exerted by drugs on cells, tissues, organ systems, and patients and be able to explain the mechanisms underlying these effects at various levels of biological organization.

Demonstrate his/her development of a professional set of attitudes concerning drug therapy.

Utilize appropriate resource materials (i.e. textbooks, literature & colleagues) to supplement their basic fund of knowledge in developing a rational and safe therapeutic approach for patients.

RECOMMENDED TEXTS:

Lecture outlines at: http://www.musc.edu/pharm/dent_lectures.html

Goodman and Gilman’s The Pharmacologic Basis of Therapeutics, 11th ed. (2006)

Katzung et al: Basic and Clinical Pharmacology 11th ed. (2009)

Both of these texts are available online through the MUSC library: http://www.accessmedicine.com/textbooks.aspx

Possibly useful:
Pharmacology Flash Cards
Brenner and Back
Saunders Title ISBN-13: 978-1-4160-3186-4

EXAMS:

THE FINAL EXAM IS NON-CUMULATIVE.

Make-up Exam Policy:

Anyone missing an exam will be allowed to take a make-up exam only if:

excused in writing by the Dean, Chairman or Program Director; and

take the exam within 3 days of returning to school.

The make-up exam may not be the same exam as given to the class (will generally be an essay type exam and may have an oral portion).

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