Pharm is killin me.. help?

[chef]

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Pharm is definitely tripping me up.. I didn't get a strong background during M1-M2 yr, and there are just so many friggin drugs to memorize and it's just rote memorization.. any tricks or tips guys????🙄😱

 

[ZonaRidicularis]

z

 

[Chutku]

Do not try to memorize drugs as individuals , painful. instead try looking at classes of drugs and try to ascertain the pattern, once you have the basics down then go for the exceptions. e.g. beta blockers end in olol etc. the look at shortest and longest acting - esmolol works for only minutes. look at exceptions - labetolol hitting more than one receptor class, why propranolol cannot be used to asthmatics(non selective beta blocker cause bronchoconstriction) etc. While in neuro I had this teacher who said that try to condense a topic in 1 page and if you can remember that you are good. i did not care for the teacher but that point made sense.
FA had some good pneumonics. for detailed look I used Golan Pharmacology.
I second the opinion that you should try to look at diseases and then the drugs to treat them and where they fit in.

Take care and good luck

 

[mm3781]

I don't know how much time you have, but I would recommend the lippincott pharmacology review book and pre-test pharmacology. It will require some time on your part, but I think it helped drastically for Step I as well as for clerkships (I got numerous specific comments from professors complimenting my pharm knowledge). Also, know the adrenergic agonists and antagonists cold. Know which receptors they affect and know them well enough to figure out what would happen to blood pressure if X antagonist were given before Y agonist (i.e., giving phentolamine before epinephrine).