Course description/Pre-clinical and clinical stages
DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY
Street Address:Kajaanintie 52 D, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland
Postal Address: PL 5000, FIN-90401 Oulu, Finland
Tel:+358 8 537 5231 (secretary)
Telex:32315 OYLSF
Telefax:+358 8 537 5247
Head:Olavi Pelkonen, Professor of Pharmacology
Teaching staff (8 academic persons)
Professor (Olavi Pelkonen)
Professor (Heikki Ruskoaho)
Reader (Hannu Raunio)
Senior Lecturer (Kirsi V„h„kangas)
Senior Lecturer (Arja Rautio)
3 Assistants (currently Heikki Tokola, Marja Luodonp„„, Janne Hukkanen)
temporary teaching assistents
PHARMACOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY COURSE
Course director:Professor Olavi Pelkonen
Lectures 74 h
5 Laboratory practicals 15 h
8 Group discussions 12 h
written interim (2) and final examinations; essay-type questions
ECTS credits 9
Semester 4, 2nd year; 7 credits (basic pharmacology and toxicology)
emester 5-7, 2 credits (clinical pharmacology)
Goals of the course
In the end of the first course, medical and dental students should
understand the principles
of drug action and behaviour in the body, also with respect to chemicals in
general, and know
representative examples of drugs in each major category. Furthermore, student
should have at
least some preliminary knowledge of pharmacology and toxicology in areas such as
drug abuse,
"natural" drugs and "alternative approaches", drugs and society, risk assessment
and so on.
During the clinics, medical students perform clinical pharmacological
analysis of actual
patients under the guidance of both clinicians and pharmacologists and present
these cases during a
seminar series at the end of the second course.
COURSE CONTENTS
The first course (semester 4)
GENERAL PHARMACOLOGY
Principles of pharmacology and toxicology (pharmacokinetics and
pharmacodynamics,
interindividual variability, drug development)
Chemical mediators and drug action
SYSTEMATIC PHARMACOLOGY
Cardiovascular pharmacology
Pharmacology of central nervous system (Psychopharmacology, analgesic
drugs,
antiepileptics, Parkinsonian drugs etc)
Pharmacology of pain and inflammation
Pharmacology of endocrine systems
Pharmacology of respiratory system
Antimicrobial agents
Treatment of cancer
TOXICOLOGY
General and systematic toxicology
Drug and chemical poisoning
Toxicological evaluation and risk assessment
Chemical carcinogenesis and teratogenesis
The second course (semesters 5-7; clinical pharmacology)
CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGICAL ANALYSES AND PATIENT HISTORIES
7 patients for each medical student)
CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGICAL SEMINAR SERIES
9 1.5-hour seminars (topics eg hypertension, cardiac insufficiency etc, 3-4
patient cases
presented by students)
Obligatory, free-choice, in-depth course (medical students)
Furthermore, the Department offers more advanced, in-depth studies (10 credits) in the areas of its three main projects: 1) Drug metabolism; pharmacological and toxicological significance; 2) Expression and regulation of natriuretic peptides; and 3) Chemical carcinogenesis and expression of p53 tumor suppressor gene.
The Department has had about 6 to 10 students per year entering these courses.
LECTURE TITLES (semester 4)
1 Introduction
2-3 Pharmacodynamics
4-5 Pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism
6 Pharmacogenetics and variability
7 Development of pharmaceuticals; "alternative medicines"
8-9 Autonomic pharmacology
10 Peripheral transmitters
11-12 Pharmacology of pain and inflammation
13 General and local anesthetics
14-18 Cardiovascular pharmacology
19 Drug treatment of respiratory diseases
20 Drug treatment of gastrointestinal disorders
21-22 Drug treatment of endocrinological diseases
23 Drug treatment of neurological diseases
24-25 Drugs used to treat mental diseases
26 Addiction and drug abuse
27-29 Antimicrobial drugs
30 Cancer chemotherapy
31 General toxicology
32-33 Systematic toxicology
34 Toxicity testing and risk assessment
35 Poisoning
36 Chemical carcinogenesis and teratogenesis
37 Special topics
(each number means two 45-min lecture)
Textbook: A Finnish Textbook on Medical Pharmacology and Toxicology edited by Pelkonen and Ruskoaho, Duodecim 1998.