Learn Pharmacology

What is Pharmacology?

In the shadow of the 2nd world war, two pharmacologists at Yale Medical School, Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman were recruited under the mantle of military secrecy to answer a peculiar question, "Could chemical weapons be used to fight diseases?"

Goodman and Gilman then performed clinical trials using nitrogen mustards to treat some mice with cancer. Long story short, in 1942, they confirmed that a mustard gas related compound called Mechlorethamine (Mustargen) can kill fast-growing abnormal cells (cancer cells). Until today, their study contributes to the creation of a powerful weapon in the arsenal of many oncologists – chemotherapy drugs. This discovery is only one of the many excellent examples of pharmacology's impact on the world.

By definition, Pharmacology is the science and the study of how drugs and other chemical compounds (such as Mustargen) interact with biological systems – including you, your mom, your dad, and your pet dog/cat, or any other living thing that exists.

The foundations of pharmacology are extremely critical to medicine, veterinary science, dentistry, psychiatry, and many other fields.

Careers in Pharmacology 

Studying pharmacology opens doors to a range of job opportunities. Jobs directly related to a pharmacology degree include medical researcher, pharmacologist, analytical chemist, biomedical chemist, healthcare immunology scientist, and clinical research associate among others.

A pharmacology degree would also be useful in careers such as toxicologist, high education lecturer, physicians, patent attorney, and regulatory affairs officer. Pharmacology classes also play an important role in nursing because nurses in different areas such as hospitals, nursing homes, healthcare facilities, and private physician offices administer medications. It is expected that nurses have the right education, confidence, and competence to administer medications safely.

Learning Pharmacology 

Pharmacology is probably among the most challenging subject to learn. There are so many details or facts to know in every medication, like the mechanism of action, route of administration, indication, contraindication, and side effects… not to mention that there are so many medications existing on the planet! Nevertheless, pharmacology is not impossible to master.

The best way to learn pharmacology, as reported by many students and experts in the field, is to recognize groups, classifications, patterns, similarities, and differences between these drugs, like the way each class in Brainscape is organized into decks.

You can try additional tools like online videos for pharmacology if you are a visual learner (someone who learns best when you see ideas, concepts, and words that are presented through videos or images).

Brainscape yet offers another highly effective study instrument – handy flashcards, to help you focus on the essential facts, and make your study of pharmacology so much easier.

With Brainscape, you can double your learning speed and improve your long-term retention!

Pharmacology in Brainscape 

In Brainscape, you will find several classes, decks, and study cards for pharmacology - starting with the top classes below. These include an expert-curated class to help you pass the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). As well as classes created by users and publishers around the world, summarizing and categorizing all the necessary concept you need to know about pharmacology, including general principles, to all types of medications, drug to drug interactions, and many more.

Also, Brainscape makes it easy for users to create a personalized set of flashcards! Why is that good news? Because studies show that building your own smart flash cards will be yet another tactic to learn pharmacology faster or other subjects you might need to master!

Learn Faster in Brainscape 

Brainscape, a synchronous web and mobile program, is devised to improve the retention of declarative knowledge.  It is distinctive from other spaced-repetition flashcard platforms in that its configuration for re-assessment is grounded not on a random procedure nor on user's history of correctness, but on user's own judgment of confidence in answering each flashcard - a process that Brainscape calls Confidence-Based Repetition (CBR). This process allocates appropriate study time for each piece of information in order to help you learn more efficiently than ever before.

Each time you see a study flashcard, Brainscape will ask how well you knew your answer on a scale of 1-5. Then, it determines how frequent the card will appear (with 1s coming up repeatedly and 5s hardly ever until you give a report of a higher rating).

Aside from CBR, Brainscape makes use of other cognitive science learning principles -  Active Recall and Metacognition.

Active Recall is a principle which involves "actively" retrieving the correct answer from memory, as opposed to passively "pinpointing" the right answer amongst chains of multiple choice options. This process boosts connections in the neural pathway of the brain, an efficient technique in strengthening long-term memory.

Metacognition, on the other hand, is a process that requires you to reflect how deeply you know the concept, aiding in 'memory trace' -  the actual scheme of storing memories.

So, why not start with Brainscape today?

How to Get Started 

To get started with Brainscape, you can try browsing some of the pharmacology classes listed below. You may also explore further and check each pharmacology classes to grasp how they are organized into decks. Inspect each class to see if they may be able to help you with what you are looking to learn.

Now, go pick whatever classes suit your needs, and use those flashcards to learn!

Brainscape hopes you learn pharmacology in no time and other subjects you may be facing. Good luck!