Undergraduate - UnitPSC3321 - Disease-Focused Pharmacology CNS

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Offered	Parkville First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Jennifer Short

Synopsis

This unit investigates in detail disorders involving the nervous system, and provides the relationship between the pathophysiology of these diseases and the rational design and use of drugs. Students will review the structure and function of the nervous system and important aspects of neurotransmission and cell signalling, and will then consider in detail exemplar disorders involving the nervous system, such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, depression, pain, and brain cancer, and disorders affecting blood-brain barrier function. The aspects of these disease states which are amenable to pharmacotherapy will be discussed in detail and students will perform a number of tasks which will help with the development of critical thinking skills.

Outcomes

After completing this unit, students should be able to:

Describe the normal physiology of the central nervous system and cell replication cycles
For each disease or disorder, be able to explain the pathogenesis and the signs and symptoms of the disease, and relate these to the pathophysiology
Describe the diagnosis, risk factors / epidemiology and the burden of the disease on society
Explain the mechanism of action of current treatment options, explain their rationale of use, advantages and disadvantages, side effects and other limitations
Build a learning portfolio that:

Includes discussion of relevant biological models, preclinical and clinical issues, and a proposed investigation into a novel therapeutic option
Proposes new targets for therapeutic interventions or identifies areas of the pathophysiology yet to be exploited
Describes and evaluates relevant biological disease models
Investigates current research efforts, both preclinical and clinical, and identifies how novel therapeutic interventions may be assessed for efficacy within current models, or proposes new methods of investigation

Assessment

20%: three in-semester tests assessing lecture material
15%: three workshops, worth 5% each
20%: a 2,000 word report/learning portfolio
45%: end-of-semester exam (2 hours)

Workload requirements

Contact hours for on-campus students:
Thirty 1-hour lectures
Five 1-hour tutorials
Three 3-hour workshops
Three 40 minute in-semester tests

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Jennifer Short

Prerequisites

PSC2012 Molecular pharrmacology
PSC2332 Disease-focused pharmacology - peripheral

Additional information on this unit is available from the faculty at:

http://www.monash.edu/pharm/current/