SFKBIL004U Neuropharmacology

Volume 2024/2025
Education

BSc Programme in Pharmacy - elective

Content

This course will cover the neurobiology and pharmacological treatment of major psychiatric disorders, disorders of sleep and chronic pain. For each disorder, students will learn about the neurotransmitters, receptors, and neurotransmitter interactions involved, as well as different hypotheses linking dysfunctional neural circuits to clinical symptoms.

Based on this, the course will focus on the pharmacological profiles of drugs targeting each disorder, specifically discussing how the diverse pharmacological actions couple to therapeutic efficacies and adverse side effects. In this regard, comorbidities, pharmacodynamic and -kinetic interactions with other pharmacotherapeutics, and individual life style differences, will also be adressed to discuss issues of contraindications.

For each disorder, current and potential future therapeutic principles and novel pharmacological targets will be discussed. In this regard, the challenges of drug discovery and development will be addressed, including the choice of animal models to predict clinical efficacy and side effects.

Learning Outcome

At the end of this course, students are expected to be able to: 

Knowledge 

  • describe the structure and function of the brain, with emphasis on brain regions, neurotransmitters systems and their interactions.
  • describe the different types of psychiatric disorders, sleep disorders, and chronic pain states, including symptoms, the neurotransmitter systems involved, and pharmacological treatments, as well as knowledge about common animal models used in the research on the different types of psychiatric disorders, sleep disorders, and chronic pain states.

 

Skills

  • discuss differences and similarities between the disorders covered and how this pertains to the possible pharmacological treatment approaches
  • discuss the rationale behind current and novel pharmacotherapeutic strategies.

 

Competence

  • combine elements of their understanding to form ideas of new treatment strategies using available drugs or drugs with novel pharmacological profiles. 

Stahl’s “Essential Psychopharmacology”, most recent edition. 

Selected scientific articles (original investigations and review articles) available at the course web page.

If you are applying for the course as a credit transfer student, you must have passed the first five semesters of the BSc Programme in Pharmacy or have acquired similar competencies from other courses. Documentation for corresponding competencies in the form of a course descriptions and an exam result must be attached to your application.
Lectures, discussions and interactive learning tools (Mentimeter, Socrative, Kahoot, etc.).
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 66
  • Preparation
  • 100
  • Exam Preparation
  • 39
  • Exam
  • 1
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 30 min under invigilation
Type of assessment details
Each student will be assigned an individual 30-minute time slots for the exam, including evaluation and feedback.

The exam format will be in the form of a 20-25 min informal discussion in English or Danish (as you prefer), and will be as follows:

You will be given a main question that you can reflect on for 1-2 min if necessary. This question will be the center of discussion for a little more than half of the examination time (~10-15 min). The rest of the examination will be in the form of 2 minor questions pertaining to other topics within the course content.
Aid
Without aids

 

 

 

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment

To achieve the grade 12 the student must be able to:

Knowledge 

  • describe the structure and function of the brain, with emphasis on brain regions, neurotransmitters systems and their interactions.
  • describe the different types of psychiatric disorders, sleep disorders, and chronic pain states, including symptoms, the neurotransmitter systems involved, and pharmacological treatments, as well as knowledge about common animal models used in the research on the different types of psychiatric disorders, sleep disorders, and chronic pain states.

 

Skills

  • discuss differences and similarities between the disorders covered and how this pertains to the possible pharmacological treatment approaches
  • discuss the rationale behind current and novel pharmacotherapeutic strategies.

 

Competence

  • combine elements of their understanding to form ideas of new treatment strategies using available drugs or drugs with novel pharmacological profiles.