Memorization advice

[jewel2]

I realize most of the stuff about a medication is not really inferable or related to known mechanism of action or physiology. I mean, they are results from clinical trials but a lot of them the pathology is unknown or need more research. For example: methadone - QT prolongation, and Steven-Johnson Syndrome drugs. It would be helpful for me to memorize something if I know how it is caused rather than drug A causes XYZ because it just does... At this point, I could only use heuristics and make educated guess if possible to aid in my recall. Sometimes, these stuff makes pharmacy boring regardless how passionate I am to help patients.
How do you guys memorize such information? Rote memorization? Any advice or opinions on this?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Dred Pirate]

many of those side effects are class effects related - so memorize what classes of drugs cause those issues, then memorize what drugs are in teh classes. As with anything, there are always outliers (not just necessarily those two side effects) - then you need to learn which medications don't necessarily follow the class effect, or are more or less likely to cause issues - for example, which atypical antiphycotics cause more or less hyperglycemia.