Learning outcomes

After having completed the course, the student should be able to:

• describe how basic pharmacokinetic processes, as absorption, distribution and elimination, are defined, expressed, calculated, affected, and how these processes in combination determine drug disposition in the organism over time

• apply principles for allometric scaling inter-species, as well as clearence from in vitro to in vivo, for prediction of pharmacokinetic parameters in humans

• explain how pharmacokinetics together with pharmacodynamics determines the effect intensity and effect duration of a drug

• establish dosing regimens for drugs based on their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics, use given dosing regimens for calculation of concentrations, and describe how doses should be adjusted due to variability in pharmacokinetic parameters

• identify the most common types of drug interactions, describe the underlying mechanisms, and account for the consequences of the interactions

• apply pharmacokinetic principles to explain individual variation in drug disposition, and account for the consequences of this

Content

This is a basic course in pharmacokinetics, i.e. about the uptake and disposition of drugs in the body, and in pharmacodynamics, i.e. the description of drug effects with special focus on the time course of the effect(s).

The course deals with absorption, plasma protein binding, tissue distribution and elimination of drugs by liver and kidneys and how these processes determine the overall disposition of the drug in the organism. In addition, the relationships between dose and plasma concentration and of plasma concentration and effect are described, both for a given drug and its metabolites. A brief introduction to the use of pharmacokinetic methods for drug development is given. The course also deals with calculation and evaluation of mathematical parameters that describe pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes, both regarding single dose and repeated dose administration. Finally, it describes the theoretical basis for clinical drug dosing, reasons for and rational handling of inter-individual variation in drug disposition as well as drug-drug interactions.

Instruction

Teaching is provided through lectures, seminars, workshops (both teacher-supervised and independent), calculation exercises and computer laboratory sessions.

Course introduction, computer laboratory sessions and certain seminars are compulsory.

Assessment

Individual, written examination is arranged at the end of the course.

In order to pass the course, the student must have completed all compulsory exercises and the written examination.