PSYC62H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Psychopharmacology, Pharmacogenetics, Substance Abuse
Document Summary
The study of how drugs affect mood, thinking, perception or behavior. Psychoactive drugs are drugs that affect mood, perception, thinking or behavior by acting in the nervous system. Psychopharmacology relates the actions and effects of drugs to the issues in psychology: a psychopharmacologist must know how the nervous system functions and how psychoactive drugs alter nervous system functioning. Behavioral pharmacology is the study of how drugs affect behavior. Sometimes behavioral pharmacologists emphasize principles used in field of behavior analysis. Neuropsychopharmacology is the study of how drugs affect the nervous system and how these nervous system changes alter behavior. Psychoactive drug use is highly prevalent (therapeutic and recreational), and greater knowledge of psychoactive drugs improves patient understanding of medical treatments and health implications of taking recreational substances. Understanding how psychoactive drugs work provide important tools for understanding human behavior, and for psychopharmacologists to provide treatments for diseases. Drugs exclude substances that are made naturally within the body.
