How to Prepare Pharmacology for Medical PG entrance exams?

Pharmacology is a very vast subject and to study it for university exams you need to memorize a lot of things. And by the time Medical students complete their final internship year, pharmacology is almost forgotten.

But don’t worry, this is not a problem only with you, almost all the med students forget it.

There is no shortcut of gaining proficiency in this subject. You have to go through it twice or thrice to revise it before the Medical PG entrance exams. But don’t be afraid of pharmacology, because if you master it, you will get an edge over your competitors in NEET PG.

You obviously do not need to study complete Pharmacology for Medical PG entrance exams. This article aims at providing assistance to the Med PG aspirants in preparing Pharmacology with selective approach.

PrepLadder faculty advices these topics to be covered during pharma preparation for Medical PG entrance.

• General Pharma

In General pharma, special attention needs to be given to Pre Clinical trials and Clinical trials. You should also prepare the phases through which it passes. Other topic in this unit which needs your attention is Inducers and Inhibitors of Cyp Enzymes. If you prepare these topics in this unit then this will be sufficient.

• Autonomic Nervous System

This is very important unit of Pharmacology. You will get a sure shot question from this unit no matter which PGMEE examination you are sitting for. And if you understand this unit properly, you will understand the rest of pharmacology.

Under this unit focus on the application part. Questions are generally asked in the form of symptom complex. For answering these questions you need to apply your knowledge of Receptors (like α, β, β1, β2, β3) and blockers(like α and β).

• Autacoid

Under Autacoids, NSAIDs and Anti Gout drugs should be focussed on.

This is sufficient in this unit.

• CNS

CNS is very important unit from PGMEE examination point of view. The topics that should be more emphasized are  Anti Psychotics and Novel Anti Depressants.

Stress upon atypical anti psychotics and their advantage over typical anti psychotics. There is almost always a question on extra pyramidal side effects of typical anti psychotics.

Other important topics are Opioids and Partial Antagonists. Under this you need to remember the names and mechanisms.

Then there are Alcohol sedatives, though it is not very important topic but it is better that you have knowledge about it.

• CVS

In Cardio Vascular System you must focus on Anti-Arrhythmic and Anti Angina drugs. You should also be well versed with the new JNC 8 guidelines for Treatment of Hypertension. This is more than enough in this unit to answer the related questions.

• GIT

In this unit the important topics are Proton pump inhibitors and drugs for IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome). If you prepare only these topics, its enough for GIT.

• Hematology

When preparing Hematology you must straight away start with Low molecular weight heparin and its comparison with unfractionated heparin. You should also prepare anti platelet drugs. You will find a lot of questions asked from this topic like Platelet function defects, coagulation pathways, etc. This is all for Hematology.

• Anesthesia

You can deal with Anaesthetic drugs while preparing Anaesthesia.

• Anti Microbial

In this unit general principals are important since questions are asked from Mechanism of action & side effects of drugs.

List of Anti MRSA drugs and anti Pseudomonas drugs is important.

Specific Anti Microbials, Anti TB and Anti HIV drugs are very important. Little knowledge about drug resistance, TDK, CDK, PI and Post anti biotic effects is sufficient to be proficient in Anti Microbials. Drug resistance however is also covered in Microbiology.

• Anti cancer drugs

You will definitely find 1 Question on Anti cancer drugs. Immunosuppressants and biologicals are the important topics from this unit.

So this is all you need to study in Pharmacology. It might seem vast and it might take 3-4 revisions but if you do this subject properly you will get an edge over your competition.

Also read:  How to study all 19 subjects for NEET PG ?

Best Wishes!!