Object: The course of «Topics in Clinical Pharmacology» refers to the practical use of medicinal products in the treatment of various diseases. Instead of describing the properties of pharmaceutical substances, as is the case in the courses of Pharmacology I and II, the starting point of Clinical Pharmacology is the pathophysiology of a disease and the strategies of therapy through the combination of various medicines. Thus, «Topics in Clinical Pharmacology» include lessons, which can be considered as an introduction to therapeutics.

Content: Clinical Pharmacology has as a prerequisite the understanding of the official protocols applied in the therapy of certain diseases and the rational of the selection of the medicines included and combined in these protocols. Thus, this new approach to the medicinal products has as a starting point the pathophysiology of a disease, as opposed to the conventional lectures of Pharmacology where emphasis is given to the description of the properties of various medicinal products. It may suffice to refer to certain representative topics, such as «Combination of anaesthetics», «Drugs used to treat acute myocardial infarction», «Treatment of hypertension», «Treatment of peptic ulcer », «Treatment of degenerative diseases of the CNS», «Drug abuse in sports and anti-doping policy» etc.

Teaching Methods and Outcomes: The course «Topics in Clinical Pharmacology» aims to the better understanding of the criteria applied in the combination of different medicinal products in treating a disease. Combining different medicines has to take into consideration any possible interaction among them, which may result either to increased efficacy (synergy) or to amplification of side effects (toxicity). The students have the opportunity to work on a certain topic, which they present as a short lecture to their fellow-students. This is accompanied by a written paper on the same topic, on the basis of which they get their final evaluation score.

Hours of training per student: 26

From the 6th Semester

ECTS: 2