Pharmacology after medicine?

[MindCastle15]

I'm interested in pharmacology...what's the best way to go about it? What is clinical pharmacology? If I study medicine first, how can I study pharmacology after that? Is a PhD required? I'm interested in research in neuroscience and pharmacogenomics...some advice please? I'm super confused. Can I get jobs in pharmaceutical companies?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[NickNaylor]

What do you mean "pharmacology?" Are you interested in doing research?

 

[Dral]

Yah, do you want to work as a pharmacist or do pharmacy research? Do you want to directly treat patients or just do the research?

Work as pharmacist: pharmacy school
Do pharm research: PhD
Treat patients directly: MD or DO (or MD/PhD)

 

[Goro]

Finish high school first.

 

[missmd123]

Finish high school first.

Goro, you have been so sassy lately I love it

 

[Hospitalized]

I'm interested in pharmacology...what's the best way to go about it? What is clinical pharmacology? If I study medicine first, how can I study pharmacology after that? Is a PhD required? I'm interested in research in neuroscience and pharmacogenomics...some advice please? I'm super confused. Can I get jobs in pharmaceutical companies?

You got that right. I got confused just reading your post.

 

[Jeffrety]

You definitely dont want to do PharmD right now. You are heading toward the MD/PhD pathway but it is not so easy my friend. Do you have any research experience? Wet lab? Literature review?Posters? Writing grants? Rewriting grants? Dealing with IRBs? Kissing asses so the NIH wont defund you?

 

[Holmwood]

Don't even think about getting a job in biomedical research until you get some research experience. An addiction neuroscience lab is a good place to start if you're interested in how genes/strains/physiology can affect drug response.

Don't even think about getting a job in medicine until you get some clinical experience. If you don't even like patients, then don't even think about an MD. Just focus on the MS or PhD.

 

[MindCastle15]

Yes, I'm interested in pharmacology research. And I've completed high school, am taking a gap year. I just wanted to know what kind of jobs I will get if I study medicine, then specialize in pharmacology? In R&D in companies? Vs getting a masters in pharmacology? Or is pharmacy school better option?
Also, could anyone tell me how medical toxicology is, as a field? What is required to be a medical toxicologist? I'm more interested in the forensics part of it. (I really have a lot of questions, sorry!)

 

[MindCastle15]

Yah, do you want to work as a pharmacist or do pharmacy research? Do you want to directly treat patients or just do the research?

Work as pharmacist: pharmacy school
Do pharm research: PhD
Treat patients directly: MD or DO (or MD/PhD)

This was kind of my question: sorry if I got everyone confused! How do you "directly treat patients" after specializing in pharmacology? And does studying pharmacology after medicine mean that I have to do a PhD? What do 'clinical pharmacologists do? What kind of jobs will I get afterwards? And no, I do not want to be a pharmacist, but I am interested in research. What is the best option for me? Is it possible to do something related to neuroscience in pharamacology? I'm new here, and I just want a little more info on this field! Thanks for bearing with me

 

[unnumzaan]

You can work in R&D as a PhD scientist, or a PharmD clinical or research scientist, or a MD/DO who doesn't want to practice (not a good plan). Getting a masters in pharmacy doesn't get you very far in science, just like any masters degree. They are generally viewed as equivalent to 2-3 years of working experience. You should get a better grasp of what pharmacy and pharmacology are (those two terms can refer to very different academic fields). Not many people get a medical degree and then specialize in pharmacology - that sounds like a MD/PhD focus or maybe laboratory science. Some people do get a pharmD and then pursue the MD...results may vary. Paging @mik30102

MedTox is a fellowship specialty after emergency medicine residency. You become an expert in patients with acute poisoning. What do you mean by forensics?

It sounds to me like you don't have much experience with any of these fields yet. I could go to college, focus on doing well in all the science courses, get involved in some clubs and interest groups, and explore these options from there. You can do research as an undergrad, shadow clinicians, do summer internships in industry R&D, etc. while in college to discover where your true interest lies. Just know now that the R&D industry is very very different from the clinical world.

 

[Holmwood]

I think it be best if you get some knowledge on how clinical trials work to put what everyone else said into perspective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phases_of_clinical_research

I know, it's wiki, lol. But look into where clinical researchers (PhDs) and physicians play a role in clinical testing.

PharmD pathway is a bit weird. From what I understand, it's a 2 year fellowship after you get a PharmD to be trained as a clinical researcher, but it seems you have more career opportunities as a PhD in big pharma. PharmD seems to be more interested in the wide distribution of drugs as well as drug interaction with human patients (phase 3 4), but not so much the development of those drugs (preclinical) which is in the realms of PhD.

 

[Goro]

As a medical student you'll study lots of Pharmacology. If you want to research in this field, do a PhD.

 

[NickNaylor]

TBH it sounds like you need to do more exploration with respect to what the different pathways you're talking about involve and what your actual goals are. You're all over the place. If you want to see patients, then you must go to medical school. If you want to see patients but have a research-focused career, then the MD/PhD route might be for you. If you don't want to see patients but are more interested in being in an academic environment, you could go the PharmD route and work at a large hospital or even a PharmD/PhD program if you want to do some research. If you have no interest in practicing medicine or being involved with patient care, then you should go the PhD route.

You're still early on in the process, so these aren't things you need to decide now. Get involved with some research when you start college to see if it's something you even want to do, perhaps try and get involved in some shadowing with a PharmD that is involved directly in patient care to see that side of things, and then do some shadowing (perhaps in the particular fields you might be interested in) to see what patient care is like. It's hard to decide these things when you have limited or no exposure to them beforehand.

 

[Doug Underhill]

I'm a Ph.D candidate in pharmacology who is applying to med school this year. Can you expand on your interest in pharmacology? Some (most? I know mine did) schools have undergrad courses in it you can take that will familiarize you with basic concepts such as receptor theory, DMPK, and mechanisms of drug action. I would start off with one of these to see if you like the subject matter. You will definitely want to have taken cell biology as a pre-requisite and organic chemistry would probably be helpful as well

If you still like pharmacology after taking such a course, you could consider doing research in the field. Pharmacology research can take a wide variety of forms. Some labs do drug discovery, where they look to identify and optimize new drugs using biochemical assays and chemical synthesis. Some labs try to identify new uses for drugs that have already been developed to improve the standard of care for patients. Other labs focus entirely on cell signaling/physiology. I would read about the research opportunities available to you and contact the PI in charge of the lab if you're interested in undergraduate research. Your university probably has a specific program for this that you can take advantage of. If not, look for summer research programs at schools with prestigious pharmacology departments.

 

[MindCastle15]

I'm a Ph.D candidate in pharmacology who is applying to med school this year. Can you expand on your interest in pharmacology? Some (most? I know mine did) schools have undergrad courses in it you can take that will familiarize you with basic concepts such as receptor theory, DMPK, and mechanisms of drug action. I would start off with one of these to see if you like the subject matter. You will definitely want to have taken cell biology as a pre-requisite and organic chemistry would probably be helpful as well

If you still like pharmacology after taking such a course, you could consider doing research in the field. Pharmacology research can take a wide variety of forms. Some labs do drug discovery, where they look to identify and optimize new drugs using biochemical assays and chemical synthesis. Some labs try to identify new uses for drugs that have already been developed to improve the standard of care for patients. Other labs focus entirely on cell signaling/physiology. I would read about the research opportunities available to you and contact the PI in charge of the lab if you're interested in undergraduate research. Your university probably has a specific program for this that you can take advantage of. If not, look for summer research programs at schools with prestigious pharmacology departments.

As I stated before, I just graduated from high school...and have pretty much zero exposure to the subject. Whatever I DO know about it, seems interesting, and I wanted to know a little more about it and the career prospects Maybe I'll get back to you in a couple more years?

 

[Doug Underhill]

If you just graduated from high school, the starting point is just to take cell biology. If you liked the course and were able to handle the subject matter (it's a "weeder" course at many schools), look for pharmacology-type courses to take sophomore year. I would not recommend taking it freshman year unless you absolutely destroyed cell bio first semester and want a challenge.

Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics is a popular, but challenging textbook on the subject. You could probably find an old edition on Ebay for cheap if you wanted to read it for fun. It is heavy, unwieldy, and very dense, just like the content inside.