AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course of pharmacology is designed to teach the responsible use of drugs as a relevant issue during the professional activity in physiotherapy. In particular, in the choice of the drug to be used, it must consider, beyond symptoms, other patients’ characteristics including, age, gender, concomitant pathologies and therapies, previous history of diseases, etc.

The course is divided in two sections: the first deals with pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics focusing on the evidence that the interaction between drugs and the body can significantly vary according with personal physiological and pathological parameters.

The second part illustrates the main features of the classes of drugs more frequently used in a patient during its rehabilitation (therapy of inflammation, pain, etc).

Finally, the abuse of drugs in sport for doping purposes will also be addressed, focusing on severe side effects (acute and delayed).

Teaching methods

Teaching of pharmacology will be performed by frontal lessons

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

General pharmacology:

• Introduction to pharmacology: definition of drugs, aims of pharmacotherapy.
• Pharmacokinetics (absorbance, distribution, metabolism and elimination of drugs), parameters of pharmacokinetic (bioavailability, distribution volume, clearance and halflife).
• Pharmacodynamics (drug targets, agonism and antagonism, side effects)

Special pharmacology

• Therapy of inflammation (NSAIDs, glucocorticoids)
• Therapy of pain (opioids, adjuvant drugs)
• Local anestetics
• Anticoagulants
• Miorelaxants
• Drug abuse in sport (doping)

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

The text which is best recommended to integrate the topics that have been addressed in lectures is the following:

"Lippincott's illustrated reviews: Pharmacology", Authors: Michelle A. Clark, Richard Finkel, Jose A. Rey, Karen Whalen. EDS. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Morever, the slides shown during the frontal lessons will be made available to the students.

Exam Board

LUIGI ROBBIANO (President)

BARBARA MARENGO (President)

ALESSANDRO SARTESCHI

CHIARA VITALE

ROBERTO FIOCCA

LUCA MASTRACCI

TULLIO FLORIO

CRISTINA BOTTINO

Teaching methods

Teaching of pharmacology will be performed by frontal lessons

Exam description

The exam of pharmacology will be perfomed as an interview

Assessment methods

The interview will evaluated the ability of the student to place a given pharmacological class within a therapy, in which pharmacotherapy must be adjusted according with the physiological and pathological characteristics of patients.