PSYC62H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Substance Abuse, Addiction, Nucleus Accumbens
29 Jan 2017
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Psycho-pharmacodynamics: how drugs have impact at site of action: for most psychoactive drugs, their actions occur at synapses. L-dopa; precursor of dopamine: relevant to parkinson"s disease, trying to keep synapse alive as the cells die, manipulating transport. Most psychoactive drugs act on nt receptors. Binding affinity: drug"s strength of binding to a receptor: you want to compare drug to natural occurring nts that would normally bind at that site, compare different drugs. Receptor efficacy: drug"s ability to alter the activity of the receptor. Dissociation constant (kd or ki: drug concentration necessary for receptor binding. Occupies receptor site: partial agonist: weakly activates a receptor. Certain drugs will fit into spot the right way and activate by having that perfect connection this won"t. When it binds, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn"t. Constitutive activity: already taking place and reduces the activity or stops it. Binds to receptor site and does not let indigenous nts to activate the cell.
