Pharmacology

General Department Information

Welcome to the Department of Pharmacology at College of Medicine, Alfaisal University. Pharmacology is the study of the effects of drugs on living systems, while a drug can be defined as any chemical substance that exerts effects on a biological system. Broadly, Pharmacology includes how a living system handles a drug (Pharmacokinetics) and how the body responds to a drug (Pharmacodynamics).

At Alfaisal, we focus more on the basic concepts instead of just rote memorization of the names of drugs. Pharmacology is not taught as a separate discipline rather the curriculum is strategically designed in such a way that this discipline is always learnt in the context of clinical situations and in integration with other disciplines. This involves both didactic lectures and learning through small group PBL sessions. The Pharmacology teaching and learning commences from second year of the MBBS course in semester 3 and continues by the end of third year (Semester 6).

In semester 3, an integrated course "Pathogenesis of Disease" is run. The Pharmacology curriculum in this course is designed to develop an understanding of basic principles governing the fate of administered drug and the factors determining effective drug concentration at the desired site. In addition, this course provides information about how drugs produce their effects, the parameters required to compare drugs and their safety profile. Furthermore, drug groups with important clinical uses in more than one organ system such as drugs acting on the autonomic nervous system, antimicrobials, analgesics, and autacoids, are also covered in this course.

System-based Pharmacology commences after the "Pathogenesis of Disease" in integration with other basic and clinical sciences in the Neurosciences, Musculoskeletal, Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Renal, Hematology/Oncology, Dermatology and Special Senses Blocks.