Medical teaching at the University of Lund is a 5 1/2 year programme where pharmacology (basic and clinical) is integrated with the theoretical, medical disciplines. The space for pharmacology is small (less than 15 hours/semester). Two elective courses on basic and clinical pharmacology (4 weeks each) are given in the 5th and 10th semester. We also offer 4 different computer-simulated practicals on pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, neuromuscular and cardiovascular pharmacology.
The objectives for the courses given in Lund follow the guidelines suggested by the Pharmacological and Medical Societies in Sweden. Thus the following basic pharmacological principles are in focus:
- The principles governing how drugs exert their actions at the molecular and cellular level, in
individual organs and in the entire body.
- The principles governing the fate of drugs in the body (absorption, distribution,
metabolism and excretion) as well as basic pharmacokinetic principles.
- The most important therapeutic effects and side-effects of various groups of
pharmaceuticals, and the mechanisms that underlie these effects.
- Side-effects: how to recognise, handle and report them.
- Drug intoxications: how to recognise and handle them.
- Abuse of pharmaceuticals: Mechanisms underlying the development of tolerance and
dependence; Pharmaceuticals and other substances that are often abused; Performance
enhancers/anabolic steroids.
- Patient compliance.
- Mechanisms of drug interactions.
- Mechanisms that cause interindividual variations in a drugŪs effect and pharmacokinetics
(e.g. genetic, age-related, illness-related).
- Factors governing drug effects on the fetus or child of a pregnant or breast-feeding
woman undergoing pharmacological therapy.
- Pharmacological treatment of the elderly.
- Indications for determining the concentration of a drug and the basis on which
the results should be evaluated.
- Handling and prescription of drugs; Laws and regulations concerning drugs and drug
management (both in-patient and out-patient care) including reduced-cost regulations; Prescription
writing, Local pharmaceutical committees: their tasks and recommendations.
- Information about pharmaceuticals; Principles of critical evaluation of drug information.
- Drug epidemiology and statistics.
- Drug development, including the basic principles of how to set up and carry out clinical
trials.
Throughout the medical studies the modes of action and mechanisms of side effects of certain clinically important classes of pharmaceuticals are supposed to be discussed (see list below).
- Drugs with effects on the central nervous system; Drugs against psychoses; Drugs against
affective disorders; Drugs against anxiety; Sedatives and hypnotics; Drugs used in connection with
Parkinsons disease, AlzheimerŪs disease and other neurodegenerative diseases; Drugs used in
connection with stroke; Antiepileptic drugs; Anaesthetics; Opioid analgesics; Drugs against
migraine
- Pain killers, antiinflammatory agents, drugs against gout
- Local anaesthetics
- Medicines used for cardiovascular disorders; diuretics; Drugs against heart failure; Drugs
against ischaemic heart disease; Antiarrhythmic drugs; Drugs against hypertension; Lipid-reducing
drugs
- Drugs that affect blood coagulation
- Anaemia medicines
- Drugs used in connection with allergies
- Drugs against pulmonary diseases; Drugs used against obstructive lung diseases; Drugs
against rhinitis; Cough medicines
- Drugs used against disorders of the alimentary canal; Drugs against ulcers and gastritis;
Laxatives and antidiarrhoeal medicines; Drugs against inflammatory bowel diseases
- Antiemetics
- Hormones and drugs that affect the endocrine system; Oestrogens and gestagens +
replacement therapy and contraception; Antidiabetic drugs; Hypophyseal and hypothalamic
hormones; Thyroid hormones and thyreostatics; Hormones involved in calcium turnover + drugs
used for treatment of osteoporosis; Anabolic steroids
- Chemotherapeutic agents; Cytostatic drugs; Antibacterial drugs; Antiviral drugs;
Antifungal drugs; Antiparasitic drugs
- Drugs that affect the immune system