DATES:

Tuesday, August 6th, 2024 from 11:00am ET - 5:00pm ET

Wednesday, August 7th, 2024 from 11:00am ET - 5:00pm ET

Thursday, August 8th, 2024 from 11:00am ET - 5:00pm ET

Registration: $600 per person
Groups of 5 or more: $450 per person

*All presentations must be attended to receive credit. The course content has been reviewed by the ABFT and ABC, and determined to be acceptable for submission to the ABFT or ABC for continuing education credit.

Course Description

The Foundations of Pharmacology course is brought to you in partnership by The CFSRE and Uptake. This unique online opportunity is taught by Dr. Lionel Raymon, a clinical and forensic toxicologist whose expertise bridges the interface of pharmacology and toxicology with medical and behavioral sciences. Dr. Raymon is a gifted lecturer who draws on sensitive case experience and responsibilities of academic training to contribute to the rigor to methodology and peer review.

The format of the class is “live-on-line”. Dr. Raymon expects active participation of the class and dynamically orients the topics based on constant feedback and questions.

Who Should Register

Students, professionals, and anyone interested in furthering their knowledge of pharmacology.

Group Discounts

If you register 5 or more attendees from your business/organization, you are offered a reduced registration fee of $450.

Course Schedule

The 3-day 15-hrs live online course aims to put the “logical” in pharmacological! It offers a concise, yet in depth review of must-know principles of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, autonomic and central nervous systems pharmacology.

The physiology and biochemistry of select body functions, their alteration by pathology, help derive what stimulating or blocking these pathways would result in. Then only we memorize the name of the drug and where it binds to!

Three days, three different but complementary stories.

Day 1: Principles of Pharmacology

Our first day reviews key concepts of pharmacokinetics as they relate to absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination. Each section is illustrated with study questions to reinforce key points and the use of common equations. Pharmacokinetics of a single dose of drug are compared to chronic dosing.

The generalities relating pH of the environment and the pK of a drug are covered with emphasis on drug interaction, absorption, distribution to select compartment, such as the CNS, and renal elimination of weak bases and weak acids.

Comparing intravascular and extravascular drug administration will unmask concepts of bioavailability and bioequivalence.

Discussion of distribution will center around the effects of plasma protein binding and competition for it and will relate the apparent volume of distribution to dose and extrapolated concentration at time zero.

Metabolism will emphasize cytochrome P450, focusing on genetic polymorphisms and drug interactions through inhibition or through induction. More details are included this year on this rapidly evolving topic.

It is with the study of elimination that the main concepts of terminal half-life, constant of elimination k, and clearance are approached.

We will review zero and first order kinetic of elimination.

A series of workable equations are then used through selected study questions reviewed in class to practice this introduction to pharmacokinetics.

We finish day 1 with a rapid introduction to pharmacodynamics. Appreciation of affinity, efficacy and potency is gained from the study of log dose-response curves as well as the various forms of antagonism and agonism of receptors by drugs.

Day 2: Autonomic Nervous System Pharmacology

To study drugs requires strong bases in the normal physiology, anatomy, and biochemistry of our body.

Drugs stimulate or block existing biological pathways.

Unfortunately, the promiscuity of drugs with other receptors, enzymes, transporters, transcription factors results in long lists of understandable and predictable side effects. And many originate in altered autonomic responses. The historical understanding of our autonomic nervous system allows us to derive all these points readily.

Further, many of the DRE matrix signs and symptoms stem from autonomic responses elicited by the suspected drug causing impairment while driving.

An introductory chapter sets up the autonomic nervous system, its chemistry, and the receptors involved. We stress cardiovascular and ocular autonomic responses.

Two chapters follow, devoted to cholinergic and adrenergic pharmacology, respectively. A more in-depth review of where the receptors are and what they do is the critical approach to a clear expectation of agonists and blockers of cholinergic muscarinic, nicotinic, and adrenergic alpha and beta receptors.

Day 2 will allow the class to appreciate that pharmacology is grounded in a good understanding of our biology.

Knowing the name of a drug and what it binds to should allow us to derive its indications, side-effects, and importantly potential interactions with other medications.

Day 3: Central Nervous System Pharmacology

Impairment, addiction being topics of great forensic relevance, we dedicate our last day to central nervous system drugs.

Due to the breadth of this section, we focus our efforts on GABAergic, opioid, and monoaminergic transmission. Adapting the autonomic nervous system review approach to the central nervous system will offer us a better understanding of agonists and blockers of these major neurotransmitter systems and their neural circuits. Emphasis is placed on drugs used to treat anxiety disorders; sedatives; drugs used in pain management; dopaminergic and serotonergic drugs commonly used in the treatment of psychosis and mood disorders. If time allows, we will also approach stimulants and THC as medical marijuana.

I am looking forward to meeting you online for our annual CFSRE/Uptake Foundations of Pharmacology review!

Detailed Learning Objectives

Objective 1: Developing a sound understanding of pharmacokinetic principles. This will allow a structured approach to daily forensic caseload where issues of absorption, distribution (ante- or post-mortem), metabolism or elimination can result in toxicology of a drug or a combination of drugs.

Objective 2: Using pharmacodynamic principles of autonomic function to identify several drug classes solely through the observation and understanding of physiological responses to a chemical affecting visual, exocrine, and cardiovascular function.

Objective 3: Gain fluency in how neurochemistry and brain function are linked through specific anatomical pathways, neurotransmitters, and their receptors. The information is used to describe how CNS drugs may affect cognition, mood, movement, balance, an important step in documenting and arguing drug impairment.

 

Click the Enroll button below to register for the Foundations of Pharamcology - 2024 Course!