Putting clinical pharmacology in context: the use of popular movies.

The usefulness of movies to illustrate the psychological and sociological conflicts of medical practice is widely recognized. However, the use of popular movies to teach less oriented medical sciences, such as pharmacology is not so common. In the present review, we report the use of three films (Awakenings, Lorenzo's Oil, and Miss Evers' Boys) as a teaching tool to allow students to better understand some conflicts which appear in the domain of clinical pharmacology. These movies may help to introduce some relevant topics such as the difficulties of planning and performing clinical research with new drugs, the need of considering bioethical principles when doing research with human beings, and the social and psychological aspects of drug therapy. The films may increase the motivation of students to understand clinical pharmacology principles and may become a driving force for an increased desire to learn.