At the end of this curricular unit, students should: (1) know the general principles of pharmacology; (2) have the theoretical skills to pronounce critically and scientifically on the validity and risk/benefit of using drugs acting on the central and/or peripheral nervous system; (3) have the laboratorial skills to conduct and analyse basic pharmacological assays; (4) be able to apply the knowledge of the general mechanisms of drug action to the interpretation of novel pharmacological and therapeutic contexts.
THEORETICAL
1. General Pharmacology
1.1. Basic & Clinical Evaluation of New Drugs
1.2. Pharmacodynamics
1.3. Pharmacokinetics
2. Neuropharmacology
2.1. Autonomic Pharmacology
2.1.1. Cholinergic and adrenergic modulators
2.2. Central Nervous System Pharmacology
2.2.1. Anxiolytics and hypnotics
2.2.2. Antidepressants
2.2.3. Antipsychotics and mood stabilizers
2.2.4. Pharmacology of addiction
2.2.5. Antiparkinsonian and other drugs for neurodegenerative diseases
2.2.6. Antiepileptics
LABORATORIAL
1. Assessing clinical efficacy
1.1. Randomized assays with blinding and placebo
2. Assessing pre-clinical efficacy
2.1. Behavioural assays in model organisms
3. In vitro assays
3.1. Concentration-response curves, affinity, potency e efficacy. (p)EC50, Kd, Ki. Schild regression, pA2 and pKb
4. Analysis, interpretation and communication of pharmacological data
4.1 Software for plotting and analysing data. Oral presentations
Theorethical and Laboratorial teaching, promoting active learning via conceptual debates, planning, conduction, analysis and discussion of laboratory experiments. In person teaching, complemented with e-learning and independent study.
Distributed Assessment (5/20 val)
2 events of 2.5 val each. Both include written report and oral presentation of students’ laboratorial data. Individual grading by teachers, modulated in 10% by anonymous scores from students of the same Lab group. Plagiarism prevention by TURNITIN software.
Final Exam (1/20 val)
Multiple choice questions, representing the whole program, with 4 levels of difficulty, and proportional discount of random scoring.
[Bonus] Merit rounding-up (0.75val)
A maximum of 0.7 val as a function of the quality and number of individual participations in pre-defined e-learning activities.
FINAL GRADE = Distributed Assessment + Final Exam + Bonus
Katzung Bertram G. ed.; "Basic & clinical pharmacology". ISBN: 0-07-117968-2.
Gilman Alfred Goodman ed.; "Goodman and Gilman.s: the pharmacological basis of therapeutics". ISBN:
0-02-344710-9.
Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. ISSN: 0165-6147. http://www.cell.com/trends/pharmacological-sciences
The New England Journal of Medicine. ISSN 1533-4406. http://www.nejm.org/
The Lancet – Neurology. ISSN: 1474-4422. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur
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