Sports trainers are authority figures for athletes and are often requested for advices on medical diagnosis or pharmacological therapies. Hence, the knowlwdge of the proper use of most commonly prescribed drugs, or the potential harms causedby pharmacological abuse, as it happens in case in doping, are necessary skills to joint the search for atletic performances with the improvement of athlete's health.
Learning of Pharmacology represents a significant step in comprehending the dimamics of interaction between sports activity and drug therapies, focusing on those systems that are mostly involved in physical activity and whose physiology may be affected by drug use or abuse.
This course of pharmacology is designed to form qualified personnel (gymnastic teachers, athletic trainers, experts of rehabilitation....etc), capable to dispense physical activity recognizing the most relevant features (indications and contraindications, side effects...etc) of pharmacologic therapies for those pathologies that are most commonly associated with sports activity. To this aim, the first part of the course examines the dinamics of interaction of drugs with human body, and the mechanisms through which drugs induces therapeutic modification of the diseases. The second part of the course is aimed to examine the most important drug cathegories that can be used in sport population, focusing on those that target sports-related pathologies. The course will detail the pharmacologincal control of inflammation and pain, and the treatment of respiratory tract diseases. Last but not least, the course examines those drugs that, beyond their therapeutic usefulness, are abused in the absence of therapeutic needs, with the purpose of alterate physical performances of athletes. Such unnecessary and often overdosing treatments, expose athletes at high risk to suffer significant side effects or develop late-onset diseases that can severely endanger their health in post-agonistic life.
The teaching takes place in form of lectures that will be held at the University of Genova Campus in Savona
Overview on pharmacology
Farmacokinetics
Farmacodynamics:
Pharmacology for cathegories
The text which is best recommended to integrate the topics that have been addressed in lectures is the following:
"Lippincott's illustrated reviews: Pharmacology", Authors: Michelle A. Clark, Richard Finkel, Jose A. Rey, Karen Whalen. EDS. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Ricevimento: Students may want to contact Prof, Thellung at the following: Viale Benedetto XV, 2 ground floor Phone 010 3538884, cell 3291484399 email stefano.thellung@unige.it
FULVIO ALBE'
DIEGO FERONE
MANLIO MILANESE
STEFANO THELLUNG DE COURTELARY (President and Coordinator of Integrated Course)
Classes will start in march
PHARMACOLOGY
The exam conprehends a written test, composed of 15 single-answer quiz. Oral session may follow to upgrade the results of the test.
Student's knowledge of therapeutical indication and side effects of the most common sport-related drugs will be evaluated. Particular importance will be given to over-the-counter drugs whose use must take into consideration athletes physiology-pahtology characters (age, gender, concomitant drug therapies and personal or familiar disease hystory).
