46248 - General Pharmacology

Learning outcomes

The student will learn the basic concepts of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs. These concepts are preliminary to the study of the main classes of drugs used in clinical practice.

Course contents

1. Introduction to the pharmacology with useful definitions and elements of pharmaceutical legislation.
2. The pharmacokinetics: routes of administration, absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs. Control of plasma concentrations of drugs.
3. Pharmacodynamics: drug-receptor interactions and responses to drugs. Concepts of efficacy, potency, therapeutic index. Factors affecting drug response. The individual variability in drug response: the pharmacogenetics.
4. The adverse drug reactions and pharmacovigilance.
5. Drug development: from the discovery of the molecule to the clinical use.
6. Genral principles on gender pharmacology.

Readings/Bibliography

Slides and lecture notes.

Teaching methods

Lectures.

Assessment methods

The assessment of the knowledge gained by the student is based on the administration of a unique questionnaire consisting of 31 questions for the Integrated Course of Pathological Sciences, with multiple choice (4 possible choices) and one answer correct. Questions will be divided as follows: 10 questions regarding the teaching of General Pathology and Immunology and 7questions for each of the remaining courses (Clinical Biochemistry, Clinical Pathology and General Pharmacology).

The 7 questions about General Pharmacology will be allocated as follows: 2/3 of the questions on topics 2 and 3, while 1/3 on the of the questions on topics 1, 4, 5 and 6.

Teaching tools

Video-projector

Office hours

See the website of Domenico Motola