Readings in Pharmacology

Readings in the pharmacological literature; discussions and preparation of a report. Students work with a member of the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology on such topics as chemical dependencies, psycho­pharmacology, pain management, chemotherapy, cardiovascular drugs, OTC drugs, or other topics of mutual interest. This course must be pre-arranged with faculty member and requires early contact with Dr. Mendelowitz to make such arrangements. Student is required to read guidelines for Pharmacology 501.

Guidelines for Pharmacology 501

This is an independent study elective that 3rd and 4th year medical students can take for either 2 or 4 weeks at selected times during the year. The student should contact the course director by email 4 weeks prior to the start of the time period signed up for. The student then provides to Dr. Mendelowitz two pharmacological areas of interest to write a paper on (e.g., antibiotics, adrenergics, cholinergics, pain management, hypertension, congestive heart disease, drugs of abuse, psychopharmacology, etc.). Dr. Mendelowitz will then identify a faculty expert to mentor the student on one of the two topics. This usually involves an initial meeting with the mentor to hone down the topic to a digestible size, followed by a literature review by the student to identify resources and papers required. The student then reports back to the mentor, generally providing an outline for the paper for the mentor to review. The student can then begin to write up a paper on the topic.

Resources: Recent Review Articles and Original Papers are the main resources. At the end of the elective, the student must give the mentor a written paper on the topic, which should be 6-10 pages in length and have complete (titles included) references. Most students take the elective for 2 weeks. Note that the 4-week elective requires a longer paper and more in-depth analysis by the student. Faculty mentors have somewhat different styles for mentoring Pharm 501 students. For example, some faculty members require a full draft of the paper, others ask for an outline before starting the paper. Some have several meetings with the student, some stay in touch by email.

Key Points:

• The student must do more than just a literature review. Some critical analysis of the status of the chosen topic must be attempted by the student.
• Students should use brief citations within the text (e.g.: Bryan et al., 2005) to indicate primary sources for specific information, then place full citations for all references used at the end of the report in a separate References section.
• Students are cautioned against copying information directly from the resource documents or the internet. Excessive verbatim or nearly verbatim regurgitation is not acceptable, and may result in a non-passing grade. Proper citation is required for any quoted material. The student should describe the source material in their own words, followed by a summary evaluation of the literature examined. References, including original research papers and review articles, should be drawn primarily from quality peer-reviewed publications. Sources lacking peer-review and/or clear attribution (e.g., Wikipedia) should not be used as primary sources and should not be cited in the reference list.
• GWU policy prohibits all students from using a paper for credit in more than one course.

Course Learning Objectives:

By the end of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Critically evaluate a new pharmaceutical option and alternatives regarding efficacy, safety, adverse effects, patient population, and other important pharmacological and clinical use characteristics.
2. Synthesize information gleaned from a literature review with critical analysis on the topic of choice.