Good pharmacology/psychedelic/drug/etc uni course to take in the UK

[Synesthesiac]

Swims not doing too well at his first year of his current degree (physics, boooooooring) and is seriously considering changing to a pharmacology related subject, as this is his real area of interest.

If there was a general psychopharmacology or psychedelics degree course, that would be absolutely perfect. But I dont think that there are any in the UK (apart from a few maybe advanced post graduate ones)

Swim has gone on the UCAS website and scrolled though the courses and picked out the ones with a foundation year as he doesn't currently have a biology or chemistry A level, making instant entry hard to get for most courses (Swim has A levels in maths, physics, computing and music technology) But he could always spend an extra year getting the grades needed for any course really.

But swims not sure about which subject would really be the best for his needs. Pharmacology, Pharmacy (whats the difference!?) Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, etc, etc. Swim basically just interested in A) How and why drugs work biologically, how they effect the body and how exactly they produce altered states of consciousness and B) The chemistry and various techniques behind production of pharmaceuticals and drugs.

Any advice? Any recommendations on what would best suit swims needs?

[Joel2k11]

Ha, nice coincidence... SWIM is in the exact same situtation.

i'm even a first year physics student.

[Synchronium]

I'd recommend the course I'm about to finish - Medical Science. Due to the options I chose for my final year, I'll soon be "Synchronium, BMedSc (Pharmacology)".

Obviously, it's not all about recreational drugs. It's all about gearing you up for a serious medical research job, but it'll teach you everything you need to know to learn as much as possible about any recreational drug in particular. In fact, I got to do a presentation on Salvia divinorum and psychoactive mushrooms for both my pharmacology modules this year.

A masters or PhD is the time to specialise further, so a general medical science degree will be your best bet. You can also do chemistry with pharmacology, but that's more about drug design rather than how it all works.

[Synesthesiac]

Originally Posted by Synchronium

I'd recommend the course I'm about to finish - Medical Science. Due to the options I chose for my final year, I'll soon be "Synchronium, BMedSc (Pharmacology)".

Obviously, it's not all about recreational drugs. It's all about gearing you up for a serious medical research job, but it'll teach you everything you need to know to learn as much as possible about any recreational drug in particular. In fact, I got to do a presentation on Salvia divinorum and psychoactive mushrooms for both my pharmacology modules this year.

A masters or PhD is the time to specialise further, so a general medical science degree will be your best bet. You can also do chemistry with pharmacology, but that's more about drug design rather than how it all works.

Cheers. I'm checking some of the medical science courses atm, and some of the modules look interesting for sure.

I'm starting to wonder whether neuroscience would better suit my needs in terms of studying how drugs produce altered states of consciousness and effect brain receptors. Or would neuroscience more likely be just about how the brain works and not about drugs?

I suppose some courses might be able to combine NeuroScience with Pharacology or something, which would be ideal. But I also want to learn chemistry and how to create pharma, Shulgin style I think I'm asking for quite a lot for one course, might have to take a post graduate one to learn all that...