Seminars – winter semester:
1. Introduction to pharmacology, basic terminology, and definitions. Regulatory authorities. Pharmacopeias. General principles of drug prescribing. Prescribing an RMP. Drug databases. Medication list.2. Basics of IPP prescriptions. Routes of drug administration. Introduction to dosage forms. Liquid DF. Dispersions, semi-solid DF.3. Solid dosage forms, 2nd, and 3rd generation of DF. Incompatibilities. Drug research and development.4. Adverse drug effects. Pharmacovigilance. Drug allergy, anaphylactic shock. Carcinogenic and mutagenic effects.5. Drugs in specific periods of life. Disorders of elimination organs.6. Treatment of pain. Treatment of migraine.7. Total repetition. Credit test. Lectures – winter semester:
1. Pharmacodynamics – specific and non-specific mechanisms of drug acting; drug-receptor interactions.2. Pharmacokinetics – mechanisms of drug permeation through biological membranes, basic pharmacokinetic processes, and parameters. Absorption.3. Pharmacokinetics – distribution and drug metabolism.4. Pharmacokinetics – excretion of drugs. Elimination by first order kinetics and by zero order kinetics, pharmacokinetic parameters of elimination and their significance.5. Pharmacokinetic parameters for overall drug exposure and dosing, single and continuous drug administration.6. Individualization of pharmacotherapy: pharmacogenetics, gene therapy. Biological treatment.7. Chemical mediators and autonomic nervous system – sympathetic.8. Autonomic nervous system – parasympathetic.9. Chemical mediators.10. Treatment of pain.11. Treatment of migraine and antiepileptic drugs.12. Psychiatric drugs.13. Central and peripheral muscle relaxants. General and local anesthetics.
Pharmacology is lively scientific discipline integrating knowledge of medical education starting with anatomy, histology. To understand pharmacological principles of drug efficacy, very food knowledge of biochemistry, physiology is requested and basic knowledge of pathophysiology and pathology as well.
Having completed an undergraduate degree in Pharmacology and the ability to successively work as clinicians, undergraduate dentists receive education in prescribing drugs safely and economically and are educated in principles of drug action. Overall knowledge of general medicine pharmacology is needed to make good decision for patient in dentistry office. The main attention is focused to mechanism of action of drug, its therapeutic effect , adverse effects, also to risk of toxicity, drug-drug interactions (prescribed often by other clinician), drug-food interactions.
To understand how drug acts, the content of Pharmacology teaching is based on chapters of general pharmacology and special parts.
General pharmacology covers pharmacodynamics (i.e. general principles of drug action, chemical mediators, receptors and other drug targets, dose-response relationship) and pharmacokinetics, i.e. absorption, distribution, metabolism , elimination (ADME) of drug. Special parts of pharmacology are devoted to body systems (cardiovascular etc.), strategy of treatment of diseases and groups of drugs according their mechanism of action. Indications, adverse effects, drug-drug interactions , contraindications are discussed. Also the role of medicinal plants is included.
Outcomes and skills: After 2 semesters of Pharmacology lessons and seminars, graduates will have knowledge in pharmacotherapy related specifically to dentistry and general knowledge in pharmacotherapy from other medicinal disciplines. The graduates will be able to integrate key elements of pharmacology to make pharmacotherapy effective, safe and economic. They will be able to provide safe and legal prescription. For actual information, they know and use drug databases. They follow regulatory authorities (EMA, FDA, SÚKL). They are able to recognize and report unexpected adverse effects. They should be opened for lifelong learning. They implement new approaches in clinical practice together with personal evaluation cost/benefit of pharmacotherapeutics.