Drugs, Brain, and Behavior

Author(s): John Salamone

Edition: 8

Copyright: 2024

Pages: 388

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$98.00

ISBN 9798765794050

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It has been more than more than half a century since the “Psychopharmacology Revolution” swept through modern society, radically changing mental health practice, and altering the way people view psychiatric disorders. Large numbers of people in the US and other countries are now being treated with psychoactive drugs, including anti-anxiety agents, antidepressants, antipsychotics, stimulants for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and a host of other medications.  Furthermore, recreational drug taking remains very common, and drug dependence and substance use disorders are behavioral dysfunctions that have substantial health consequences, both physical and mental. Of course, despite the explosive development of new drugs, both licit and illicit, there is nothing new about the phenomenon of people taking drugs for their psychopharmacological properties.  Through the centuries, people have been taking drugs, mostly plant products, either to relax themselves, to blunt the sense of pain, to stimulate perceived energy, instigate action and enhance performance, or to fundamentally alter sensation or consciousness.  In a sense, the explosive growth of drug development over the last few decades has simply added to a tendency that was already present in several millennia of human history.  Drug taking in all its social, recreational and therapeutic contexts is a very important human phenomenon, and one which warrants serious scientific investigation.  The modern field of psychopharmacology focuses on the behavioral effects of drugs across these different contexts, and includes information from several disciplines, including psychology and psychiatry, and also physiology, neurochemistry, and neuroanatomy, all of which are ultimately necessary for explaining the ability of drugs to alter psychological processes. 

This book is intended to introduce students to the field of psychopharmacology, and provide a scientific basis for understanding the fundamental principles of drug effects on behavior by integrating information from these diverse disciplines. Thus, updated chapters provide the following:

  • an in-depth look as the basic science of chemical transmission in the nervous system, and how drugs affect synaptic function
  • a focus on the anatomy of neurotransmitter systems that are the substrates of action for psychoactive substances
  • a series of chapters specifically focusing on drug treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease, cognitive dysfunctions such as Alzheimer’s disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
  • chapters focusing general phenomena related to substance abuse as well as chapters focusing on specific drugs or drug classes such as stimulants, alcohol, opiates, and hallucinogens

Preface 

CHAPTER 1 Psychopharmacology: Historical Perspectives 
CHAPTER 2 Drug Classification and Behavioral Assessment 
CHAPTER 3 Basic Principles of Pharmacology 
CHAPTER 4 Excitability and Chemical Signaling in Neurons 
CHAPTER 5 Synaptic Transmission, Drugs, and Chemical Neuroanatomy 
CHAPTER 6 Tolerance, Sensitization, and Chronic Drug Administration 
CHAPTER 7 Major Psychomotor Stimulants, Minor Stimulants, and Antiparkinsonian Drugs 
CHAPTER 8 Antipsychotic Drugs and Neurochemical Hypotheses of Schizophrenia 
CHAPTER 9 Antidepressants, Mood Stabilizers, and Anxiolytic Drugs 
CHAPTER 10 Drug Treatment of Cognitive Dysfunction 
CHAPTER 11 Overview of Substance Use and Abuse, Sedative-Hypnotics, and Alcohol 
CHAPTER 12 Naturally Occurring and Synthetic Opiates, Opiate Use Disorder 
CHAPTER 13 Nicotine, Recreational Use of Stimulants, and Stimulant Use Disorders 
CHAPTER 14 Cannabinoids, Dissociative Anesthetics, Empathogens, and Hallucinogens/Psychedelics 

Bibliography

John Salamone

Dr. John Salamone received his bachelor's degree from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri in 1978, and his Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in 1982.  For postdoctoral training, Dr. Salamone received a National Science Foundation grant and studied at Cambridge University in England, working with Susan Iversen and Trevor Robbins. Dr. Salamone stayed in England for several more years, working at Merck, Sharpe and Dohme pharmaceutical laboratories. Upon returning to the US, Dr. Salamone joined the Behavioral Neuroscience department at the University of Pittsburgh in 1986, and joined the University of Connecticut in 1988. Dr. Salamone has published more than 260 articles and book chapters focused on research in the fields of behavioral neuroscience and neuropsychopharmacology, focusing on the neural circuitry regulating motivation, with a particular emphasis on studies related to animal models of effort-related decision making, fatigue, depression and Parkinsonism. He was inducted as a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002, and he has received the University of Connecticut Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Teaching.  He also received the Joseph V. Brady Research Award in 2015, is the co-editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience: Motivation and Reward. Dr. Salamone is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, chair of the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, and the head of the Behavioral Neuroscience Division of the Psychological Sciences Department at the University of Connecticut.

It has been more than more than half a century since the “Psychopharmacology Revolution” swept through modern society, radically changing mental health practice, and altering the way people view psychiatric disorders. Large numbers of people in the US and other countries are now being treated with psychoactive drugs, including anti-anxiety agents, antidepressants, antipsychotics, stimulants for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and a host of other medications.  Furthermore, recreational drug taking remains very common, and drug dependence and substance use disorders are behavioral dysfunctions that have substantial health consequences, both physical and mental. Of course, despite the explosive development of new drugs, both licit and illicit, there is nothing new about the phenomenon of people taking drugs for their psychopharmacological properties.  Through the centuries, people have been taking drugs, mostly plant products, either to relax themselves, to blunt the sense of pain, to stimulate perceived energy, instigate action and enhance performance, or to fundamentally alter sensation or consciousness.  In a sense, the explosive growth of drug development over the last few decades has simply added to a tendency that was already present in several millennia of human history.  Drug taking in all its social, recreational and therapeutic contexts is a very important human phenomenon, and one which warrants serious scientific investigation.  The modern field of psychopharmacology focuses on the behavioral effects of drugs across these different contexts, and includes information from several disciplines, including psychology and psychiatry, and also physiology, neurochemistry, and neuroanatomy, all of which are ultimately necessary for explaining the ability of drugs to alter psychological processes. 

This book is intended to introduce students to the field of psychopharmacology, and provide a scientific basis for understanding the fundamental principles of drug effects on behavior by integrating information from these diverse disciplines. Thus, updated chapters provide the following:

  • an in-depth look as the basic science of chemical transmission in the nervous system, and how drugs affect synaptic function
  • a focus on the anatomy of neurotransmitter systems that are the substrates of action for psychoactive substances
  • a series of chapters specifically focusing on drug treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease, cognitive dysfunctions such as Alzheimer’s disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
  • chapters focusing general phenomena related to substance abuse as well as chapters focusing on specific drugs or drug classes such as stimulants, alcohol, opiates, and hallucinogens

Preface 

CHAPTER 1 Psychopharmacology: Historical Perspectives 
CHAPTER 2 Drug Classification and Behavioral Assessment 
CHAPTER 3 Basic Principles of Pharmacology 
CHAPTER 4 Excitability and Chemical Signaling in Neurons 
CHAPTER 5 Synaptic Transmission, Drugs, and Chemical Neuroanatomy 
CHAPTER 6 Tolerance, Sensitization, and Chronic Drug Administration 
CHAPTER 7 Major Psychomotor Stimulants, Minor Stimulants, and Antiparkinsonian Drugs 
CHAPTER 8 Antipsychotic Drugs and Neurochemical Hypotheses of Schizophrenia 
CHAPTER 9 Antidepressants, Mood Stabilizers, and Anxiolytic Drugs 
CHAPTER 10 Drug Treatment of Cognitive Dysfunction 
CHAPTER 11 Overview of Substance Use and Abuse, Sedative-Hypnotics, and Alcohol 
CHAPTER 12 Naturally Occurring and Synthetic Opiates, Opiate Use Disorder 
CHAPTER 13 Nicotine, Recreational Use of Stimulants, and Stimulant Use Disorders 
CHAPTER 14 Cannabinoids, Dissociative Anesthetics, Empathogens, and Hallucinogens/Psychedelics 

Bibliography

John Salamone

Dr. John Salamone received his bachelor's degree from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri in 1978, and his Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in 1982.  For postdoctoral training, Dr. Salamone received a National Science Foundation grant and studied at Cambridge University in England, working with Susan Iversen and Trevor Robbins. Dr. Salamone stayed in England for several more years, working at Merck, Sharpe and Dohme pharmaceutical laboratories. Upon returning to the US, Dr. Salamone joined the Behavioral Neuroscience department at the University of Pittsburgh in 1986, and joined the University of Connecticut in 1988. Dr. Salamone has published more than 260 articles and book chapters focused on research in the fields of behavioral neuroscience and neuropsychopharmacology, focusing on the neural circuitry regulating motivation, with a particular emphasis on studies related to animal models of effort-related decision making, fatigue, depression and Parkinsonism. He was inducted as a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002, and he has received the University of Connecticut Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Teaching.  He also received the Joseph V. Brady Research Award in 2015, is the co-editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience: Motivation and Reward. Dr. Salamone is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, chair of the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, and the head of the Behavioral Neuroscience Division of the Psychological Sciences Department at the University of Connecticut.