Pharmacotherapy

What, you may ask, is pharmacotherapy? My course guideline would say it is "pathophysiology/pharmacotherapy of common cardiovascular, endocrine, and gastrointestinal disorders." That doesn't really answer the question, since it uses the word it is trying to define in the definition. Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines pharmacotherapy as treatment of disease through the use of drugs. I'll buy that.

This class is a second in a series. Last semester, we learned about things like diuretics and kidney disease. This semester, we are learning about the heart, the hormones, and the gut. More specifically, we are learning in this class what drug to take if we have problems with any of these things. I really like this class because we are actually learning how to be pharmacists. Not necessarily the science behind it or the equations that make it work, we are learning that if a patient has this, this, and this symptom, and has been diagnosed with this, and is already taking this, they should probably be taking this.

The thing people fear about this semester is that later in the semester we will have an oral presentation. We will be presented a case and will have to explain to an instrutor what medications we would recommend, as well as the rationale behind our decision. If you fail this, you automatically fail the course. I have decided that I will pay attention during class this semester.