pharmacy vs. pharmacology
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Pharmacology is a subset of pharmacy. Pharmacology is just the study of drugs, how they interact, what side effects they cause, indications, etc. Pharmacy as a career is the monitoring of drugs (and their pharmacology) as well as disease states being treated, monitoring drug outcomes, managing patient compliance and so forth. Basically pharmacology is a part of pharmacy.
Pharmacy is a practice based profession.
Pharmacology is a science and/or term used to described the study of medications and their effects on the body and vice versa.
Obviously a pharmacist can be a pharmacologist (often with appropriate research training (traditional or on the job), but a pharmacologist can not be a pharmacist unless he/she went to pharmacy school and passed the NAPLEX/MPJE.
Clinical pharmacology is just a means of applying knowledge at a molecular level to individuals. Often w/ more of an emphasis on kinetics, molecular activity, receptor polymorphisms, etc. Further a clinical pharmacologist is a broad term often used by many MDs, PharmDs, and/or PhDs who have been recognized w/ a specific knowledge about pharmacology.
Please see the following:
http://www.pharmcas.org/advisors/pharmacypharmacology.htm
Pharmacology is a science and/or term used to described the study of medications and their effects on the body and vice versa.
Obviously a pharmacist can be a pharmacologist (often with appropriate research training (traditional or on the job), but a pharmacologist can not be a pharmacist unless he/she went to pharmacy school and passed the NAPLEX/MPJE.
Clinical pharmacology is just a means of applying knowledge at a molecular level to individuals. Often w/ more of an emphasis on kinetics, molecular activity, receptor polymorphisms, etc. Further a clinical pharmacologist is a broad term often used by many MDs, PharmDs, and/or PhDs who have been recognized w/ a specific knowledge about pharmacology.
Please see the following:
http://www.pharmcas.org/advisors/pharmacypharmacology.htm
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The field of pharmacology is very extensive compared to the level that is taught in pharmacy school. Pharmacy student get just enough to get by and practice. Having said this however; I don't believe pharmacists need an extensive pharmacology background....they need a strong foundation.
I don't think pharmacology at my Ph.D. program was really that more extensive compared to pharmacy school. As someone who was in a pharmacology Ph.D. program for 3 years before switching to pharmacy, the main difference in classes is not really the material, but the focus of material. Ph.D. pharmacology focused more on the research, reading papers, understanding methods, research design, scientific method, purpose of the papers, critical thinking, and applying them toward research, whereas pharmacy focuses more on the utilization and how to apply the knowledge in practice.
For example as a Ph.D. student, we focused more on the theoretical basis for the drug, how to prove it works on a more molecular level, what kind of methods were used, and how it applies toward your research area of interest. You focus more on things like oral exams to help prepare you for presentations on your research in the future (thesis defense, conference presentations, etc.) In pharmacy, we focused more on how we can use it to talk to patients and prescribers about side effects and efficacy, where the future of drug research is headed, and why drugs act they way they do so that you can explain and educate others about drugs. Pharmacokinetics in pharmacy school was geared more toward clinical applications of kinetics to help guide therapeutic drug monitoring decisions, whereas when I took it as a Ph.D. student, we focused more on the design of the drug and how we could make improve on its kinetics.
For example as a Ph.D. student, we focused more on the theoretical basis for the drug, how to prove it works on a more molecular level, what kind of methods were used, and how it applies toward your research area of interest. You focus more on things like oral exams to help prepare you for presentations on your research in the future (thesis defense, conference presentations, etc.) In pharmacy, we focused more on how we can use it to talk to patients and prescribers about side effects and efficacy, where the future of drug research is headed, and why drugs act they way they do so that you can explain and educate others about drugs. Pharmacokinetics in pharmacy school was geared more toward clinical applications of kinetics to help guide therapeutic drug monitoring decisions, whereas when I took it as a Ph.D. student, we focused more on the design of the drug and how we could make improve on its kinetics.
Thank you for the link! It was extremely helpful. I want to ask this question to all of you.
I want to graduate with a B.S. in Chemistry and then go straight to pharmacy school (If not accepted, I am going to go for M.S. in pharmacology), so, after I obtain both degrees, should I apply as chemist at the FDA first to get experience before I move up to pharmacologist at the same agency? In other words, Pharmacologist requires one year of experience, so I was wondering if being a chemist for one year is enough to prepare to be a pharmacologist?
