Course Description
The public health role of pharmacology in the health of the
aging population; focuses on general mechanisms of action,
specific and nonspecific drug effects, side effects, and placebo
effects. Drug safety, polypharmacy, and conditions that require
public health intervention in aging humans.
Athena Title
Pharmacology Health and Aging
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in GRNT 7600E
Prerequisite
(CHEM 1210 or CHEM 1210E) and (BIOL 1103 or BIOL 1103E or BIOL 2103H or BIOL 1107 or BIOL 1107E or BIOL 2107H) or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to describe the problem of polypharmacy and explain its role in public health.
- Students will be able to classify different types of commonly taken drugs in age-related disease processes.
- Students will be able to describe principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
- Students will be able to examine side effects from specific and nonspecific drug effects and explore their public health implications.
- Students will be able to distinguish drug action from drug effects and relate therapeutic and side effects back to drug action.
- Students will be able to identify non-pharmaceutical strategies for managing chronic diseases usually controlled pharmaceutically.
- Students will be able to design a public health plan for safe and effective pharmaceutical management in older adulthood.
- Students will be able to relate polypharmacy to cognitive and neurological disease outcomes.
Topical Outline
- I. Defining a drug
a. Defining drugs from a public health perspective
b. Purpose of consumption
c. Differentiation from foods and other substances taken to
change physiology
d. Drug effects, drug actions
- II. Pharmacokinetics
a. Route of administration
b. Ionization and solubility
c. Absorption, distribution, and elimination
- III. Pharmacodynamics
a. DR complex
b. Toxicology: ED50, LD50, TD50
c. Dose-response curves
- IV. Commonly consumed drug classes, by disease state
- V. Public health issues of polypharmacy
a. Side effects
b. Burden on healthcare
c. Non-adherence
d. Health literacy and pharmacological management
- VI. Future directions
a. Lifestyle substitutes
b. Public health intervention
c. Planning
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
