This course provides an overview of the pharmacy profession (educational requirements, professional responsibilities and opportunities, role of the pharmacist in the health care team) and a detailed look into basic pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetic, and pharmaceutical principles. The pharmacodynamics principles covered include mechanisms of drug action, drug-receptor interaction theory, dose-response relationships, structure-activity relationships, and principles of drug metabolism. Pharmaceutical topics include formulations, drug product design, excipients, dosage forms, and elimination rate. Lastly, specific disease states will be covered that will clearly, and effectively demonstrate many of the topics taught. The diseases will be approached by presenting the etiology followed by the pharmacotherapy, including the details of the multiple drug classes that are used for any one-disease state.

This course is an upper division course on a topic of special interest that is not part of a formal curriculum. The course design may differ by topic or faculty member but will include prerequisites, contact hours, and examination/assessment procedures. The level of study is appropriate for students in their final two years of study.

This is the second course in the Clinical Pharmacology course sequence that presents the physician assistant student with the necessary foundation of knowledge to safely and effectively prescribe medication for common and/or important disorders. Course content will complement material presented simultaneously in the Clinical Medicine II course including key concepts of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. These will be utilized to study medications relevant to treat human diseases.