Pharmacology Training

By an allied health world contributing writer
Published: March, 1 2010

Pharmacology graduates can seek specialized training in two-year fellowships after graduation. Very often, pharmacology schools assist students in identifying internships with cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and clinics. Where a student seeks an internship likely depends on his or her choice of pharmacological specialties. Here, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), are some categories in which students can receive pharmacology training.

• Behavioral pharmacology looks at how medicines affect human behavior (such as how psychoactive drugs affect the mind).

• Biochemical/cellular pharmacology studies how drugs work with and within living cells and with organic molecules.
• Chemotherapyis a tool used by pharmacologists and oncologists to treat cancerous cells while minimizing the damage done to the patient.
• Molecular pharmacology looks into the microscopic activity at the point where drug molecules interact with the molecules of living cells.
• Veterinary pharmacology studies animal medicines.
• Therapeutics analyzes how a person with a disease can actually change the drugs they are given because of their body’s altered chemical makeup.
• Cardiovascular pharmacology focuses on the heart and blood vessels and how drugs affect them.
• Drug metabolism studies pharmacokinetics, the methods by which drugs enter, are used and broken down, then excreted by the body.
• Endocrine pharmacology looks at hormonal drugs.