Pharmacology in Undergrad

[cerno]

---

Members don't see this ad.

My school offers an integrated pharmacology and pharmaceutics class. I have heard that they can give you a leg up when in medical school in those areas, but particularly pharmacology. Would this be something that is really worth looking into? The way my schedule is panning out, I can immerse myself more heavily in microbio classes (immunobiology, microbial pathogens etc), or pharmacology/pharmaceutics, but not both. I am nearly equally interested in both sets of classes, so that is not a factor. I am looking for the courses that will benefit me the most when it comes to med school. Thoughts from those that are current MS or others?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Even if they cover anything similar to Med school you'll forget over 90% of the material.

 

[Morsetlis]

Even if they cover anything similar to Med school you'll forget over 90% of the material.

Yeah, I took Pharm in undergrad.

Waste of time.

 

[CrimsonKing]

Bro pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics are easy, don't worry about it right now.

The hard part about pharmacology is just memorizing tons of drugs.

 

[cerno]

Bro pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics are easy, don't worry about it right now.

The hard part about pharmacology is just memorizing tons of drugs.

When you say memorizing...do you mean rote memorization of actual drug names?

 

[Bangersandmash]

I've had a few friends who are MS3 + MS4 students now who were glad they took microbio classes in undergrad. It helped them to have at least a slight basic understanding before being pummeled with med school microbio.

Can't really say if taking a lot of upper level microbio classes will help more substantially.

 

[futureczar]

Bro pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics are easy, don't worry about it right now.

Maybe the stuff your learn in medical school... but say that to me after you take two semesters of pharmacokinetics classes. Some of those calculations are absolutely insane. Mad props to the ICU pharmacists who take care of that crap.

 

[shawn829]

pharmacology will be a waste of time...they wont go into specific drugs, so that won't help you for medical school...and pharmaceutics was the most pointless class i've ever taken

 

[shawn829]

Maybe the stuff your learn in medical school... but say that to me after you take two semesters of pharmacokinetics classes. Some of those calculations are absolutely insane. Mad props to the ICU pharmacists who take care of that crap.

yup those classes can get intense, but its not so bad once you get the hang of it...unless you're talking about 3/4 compartment models and thats what pharmacists are for 🙂

 

[CrimsonKing]

When you say memorizing...do you mean rote memorization of actual drug names?

Yeah, memorization of actual drug names, the various conditions they are used for, primary mechanism of action, and contraindications.

You won't learn anywhere near the intense pharma that Pharmacy students have to (for obvious reasons), so don't worry about it. Medical School pharmacokinetics is not insane by any means.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yeah, memorization of actual drug names, the various conditions they are used for, primary mechanism of action, and contraindications.

You won't learn anywhere near the intense pharma that Pharmacy students have to (for obvious reasons), so don't worry about it. Medical School pharmacokinetics is not insane by any means.

Bump.

Currently taking pharmacology as a requirement for my major. It's a class that the PharmDs at my school take also, so we go over exactly what is bolded.

For example, for antihypertensives, we went over different classes (beta-blockers, CCBs, ACEi, ARBs, etc.) and several drugs per class including med chem (i.e., ADME), biochemical and tissue MOA, adverse effects, and contraindications.

I guess my question is how does this compare to med school pharmacology? Similar structure? More in-depth? Less in-depth?

 

[clutch21]

I had to take Pharmacology as a nursing student. I can say without a doubt that it was the most intense class I've taken in college.. including all of my upper level science courses. The amount of sheer memorization made it unbearable.

While I have forgotten many of the side effects of specific drugs, I think the initial exposure will help a little when I see them again in med school. Not to mention I've now encountered many of the drugs in nursing clinicals. The only way I could see med school pharmacology differing is in how in depth you explore the MOAs of the drugs.

I would not recommend taking pharmacology for hell of it though. The cost-benefit of it would definitely not be worth it. You would forget most of it, no doubt.

 

[image187]

I took pharmacology in college. Loved it, but if it weren't for liking the subject I may as well have not taken it if I were only interested in gaining a "leg up" in med school... don't count on this.

Aside from being integrated on exams with physiology, pathology, etc... you trule do have to memorize a lot of things. Most of the important stuff sticks with you, but some minute details needed for the test are forgotten immediately after you take it. Sure the major concepts and theory of pharmacodynamics and kinetics are tested, but what's hard are the things you can only memorize. Like the list of drugs that are well known to inhibit cytochrome oxidases as well as the ones induce them. Or the first clinical signs of toxicity of certain things, or the extent to which something is renally/hepatically cleared and the exception for that class of drug. Which azole antifungals need an acidic environment to be absorbed and so need to be taken with food and which ones dont. The relative half lives of the drugs in a certain class. Which drug turns your pee orange and which ones affect your color vision. EKG changes in a digoxin overdose. Which drugs cant be given in pregnancy vs which ones in the same class can. Toxic syndromes, and their antidotes. Which lab tests to order. This is why pharm can be hard, because there is so much to be tested on you won't even touch upon in an undergrad class. Learning the mechanism of action for entire classes of drugs is child's play