PHRM20001 (Pharmacology: How Drugs Work) - How much chemistry?

[emdiz]

To anyone who has done PHRM20001 - how much chem is involved?
The prerequisites for the subject are 37.5 points of first year biol and chem. I've completed this but I'm just worried about the amount of chemistry involved in pharmacology because this is not at all my strong point. I completed chem fundamentals and chem 1 (just...) but NOT chem 2 so do you think I will be okay with the chemistry in pharmacology?
 
 Thanks!

[nbhindi]

PHRM20001 requires no hardcore chem knowledge in order to score a high mark. Nevertheless, it might be useful to go over basic types of bonds/interactions (covalent, ionic, dipole, hydrogen, van der waals, hydrophobic), simple/serial dilutions, basic reaction kinetics and concepts of enthalpy and entropy - these aren't essential but may assist in understanding some key pharmacology principles.

Hope that helps

[emdiz]

Thanks, that's a relief to know! I'm looking forward to starting the subject now!

[slothpomba]

There is some debate about how much chemistry they *should* teach (surprisingly, people argue for both more AND less). However, the level of chemistry they actually teach is minimal, at least at Monash.

I've done every pharm unit we offer and a fair bit of personal reading as well. Basic concepts like ionisation, pH, bonding (ionic vs covalent, etc) and even mathematical things like dilution are around but are not omnipresent. Id wager even with 0 chemistry knowledge, you should be OK. That said, the fundamentals would be a great help as well.

The closest cousin of pharmacology is probably physiology (often even merged into the same major), followed by chunks of biochemistry then straight up chemistry last.

Knowledge of physiology will serve you much better than chemistry. There is often a fairly large overlap between the content of pharmacology and physiology courses. I know one helped me with the other at Monash. There is also a lot that doesn't overlap either and they are not essential partners.

[nubs]

For PHRM20001, you barely needed any chemistry knowledge at all. Just a bit of knowledge on acids and bases (something that is acidic will ionise and become charged in a basic environment and vice versa).

A bit of stuff on dilutions, like C1V1=C2V2 is also required. They don't really take much chemistry as assumed knowledge, even with the stuff I mentioned - they go through it pretty thoroughly.

Basic understanding of entropy is required for 3rd year pharmacology, but again it makes up about 5 minutes of one of the lectures. I can't remember it ever being mentioned in PHRM20001.

[mahler004]

What's the subject like on the whole?

[nubs]

Give this a read

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