Alert for students

THIS TOPIC IS NOT CURRENTLY OFFERED

Overview

This Topic will introduce students to toxicology in its broadest sense but focus on the responses of the human body to drugs and other poisons and the methodologies for toxicological examinations relevant to coronial and police investigations.

Aims

The broad aim of this Topic is to introduce students to the field of toxicology and the methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis used in forensic and clinical toxicology.

In addition, specific aims of this Topic are to inform students with regard to the:

  1. Fundamentals of human metabolic processes and drug actions
  2. Special issues associated with the interpretation of analytical results in the context of coronial and police investigations 

Laboratory work contributes to the topic content by introducing students to basic forensic toxicology skills. 

Learning outcomes

On completion of this topic you will be expected to be able to:
1.
Apply their knowledge of the field of toxicology, including coronial toxicology, clinical toxicology, police toxicology, and environmental toxicology in corresponding scenarios
2.
Have a detailed awareness of the names/structures of important drugs (licit and illicit), social trends in their abuse, their recreational usage, their morbidity and mortality, including methods of identification and detection of these drugs, including in complex sample matrices
3.
Have a fundamental understanding of the functioning of the Coronial system and the roles/duties of the forensic pathologist and forensic toxicologist
4.
Have a fundamental understanding of drug interactions, human impairment, toxicity, and lethality, factors influencing drug concentrations post-mortem as well as actions of drugs on humans and metabolism

Requisites information

Pre-requisites:
Anti-requisites: