This unit of study provides students with foundational knowledge to support the safe, effective and appropriate use of medicines. It includes the principles of pharmacodynamics (effect of drugs on the body) and pharmacokinetics (impact of body on the drugs). Students will learn and apply concepts and mathematical relationships in workshops to explain activity of medicines in the human body and to guide appropriate dosage regimen selection. They will explore the reasons behind individual variability in response to medicines including the effects of disease, other medicines, demographics and genetics. Students will consider the adverse reactions of medicines (as well as the beneficial ones), and the mechanisms underlying these adverse reactions, their classification, and principles for detection and avoidance. Therapeutics includes learning and applying common methods for assessing evidence of efficacy and safety of different therapeutic options, and hence defining their place in therapy. The principles underpinning evidence-based medicine and levels of evidence will be introduced to help students develop an understanding of how to critically evaluate therapeutic options, including special patient populations such as the young, elderly and those with chronic conditions.
Unit details and rules
Academic unit | Pharmacy |
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Credit points | 12 |
Prerequisites
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(BIOL1XX8 or BIOL1XX3 or MEDS1XX1) and (BIOL1009 or BIOL1X07) and PHAR1921 and PHAR1922 |
Corequisites
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None |
Prohibitions
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None |
Assumed knowledge
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None |
Available to study abroad and exchange students | No |
Teaching staff
Coordinator | Sophie Stocker, sophie.stocker@sydney.edu.au |
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Lecturer(s) | Andrew McLachlan, andrew.mclachlan@sydney.edu.au |
Sophie Stocker, sophie.stocker@sydney.edu.au | |
Stephen Hughes, stephen.hughes@sydney.edu.au |