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Is Pharmacy School all Chemistry??
Started by DrKemKem
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DrKemKem said:
I wouldn't say it's 90% chemistry, but quite a bit of the program has been medicinal chemistry.
Not all chemistry, but a good chunk of it is.
We have Medicinal Chemistry (orgo related somewhat), Pharmaceutical Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Physical Chemistry...
Along with that, we have Anatomy and Physiology and a whole bunch of intro to pharmacy courses and administration courses.
But don't worry, that's only 1st year. 2nd year is Pharmacotherapy year which is patient cases, etc.
We have Medicinal Chemistry (orgo related somewhat), Pharmaceutical Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Physical Chemistry...
Along with that, we have Anatomy and Physiology and a whole bunch of intro to pharmacy courses and administration courses.
But don't worry, that's only 1st year. 2nd year is Pharmacotherapy year which is patient cases, etc.
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DrKemKem said:
I had wondered this same thing before I started school. I always really disliked Organic Chem and was afraid Pharmacy school was going to be the same way. Fortunately for me, it's hasn't been that way. I find the whole thing to be more Biochemistry related with a lesser emphasis on Organic.
There are plenty of Biology and Math type classes and then several classes that aren't even science related.
We have 4 semesters of med chem at UF. The 2 in year one are more introductory in nature. Regular med chem is during year two. It's not as bad as regular organic, though you still need to understand mechanisms.
In year 2, our classes are pretty well integrated. In pharmacotherapy, we learn drugs, dosing, and applications of drug therapy. This section has dealty with hypertension, angina, myocardial infarctions, etc. The drugs we needed to use were studied in pharmacology. There we learn how the drugs work in your body. Then in med chem, we study the structure of the drug, how it binds to receptors, the mechanism of action, etc.
A typical med chem exam will have you draw drug structures. You'll have to draw a mechanism to get from an active form to an inactive form and vice versa. They'll give you structures (could be real, could be made up) and you have to say what the pKA values would be on each group, which hydrogen will leave at physiological pH, etc.
I wouldn't really call anything an organic synthesis problem, though you do need to go to one form of the drug to another and know the enzyme in the body that performs that task and the functional groups on that enzyme that cause the reaction so you can draw the mechanism. You will still you concepts from organic. When a drug enters your body, you need know what happens to it. That's part of pharmacy school.
In year 2, our classes are pretty well integrated. In pharmacotherapy, we learn drugs, dosing, and applications of drug therapy. This section has dealty with hypertension, angina, myocardial infarctions, etc. The drugs we needed to use were studied in pharmacology. There we learn how the drugs work in your body. Then in med chem, we study the structure of the drug, how it binds to receptors, the mechanism of action, etc.
A typical med chem exam will have you draw drug structures. You'll have to draw a mechanism to get from an active form to an inactive form and vice versa. They'll give you structures (could be real, could be made up) and you have to say what the pKA values would be on each group, which hydrogen will leave at physiological pH, etc.
I wouldn't really call anything an organic synthesis problem, though you do need to go to one form of the drug to another and know the enzyme in the body that performs that task and the functional groups on that enzyme that cause the reaction so you can draw the mechanism. You will still you concepts from organic. When a drug enters your body, you need know what happens to it. That's part of pharmacy school.
Depends on what kind of program you're in. If your program is more clinically oriented, you will have less of the chemistry type classes and more of the pharmacotherapy classes. My program is geared toward producing pharmacists who are more involved in monitoring patient drug therapy rather than just being a dispensing pharmacist at your local retail. We have a ton of pharmacotherapy courses and our rotations begin our third year (have to juggle classes and rotations).
Just look into which programs best fit your needs.
Just look into which programs best fit your needs.
emogrrrrl said:
We have 5 semesters of pharmacotherapy and our rotations begin in year 3, too. We still have to know all the chemistry. Our rotations also cover summer between years 3 & 4, so in essence my program is over 4 years.
