Introduction to Neuropsychopharmacology Flashcards
Drug definition
An administered substance that affects physiological functioning
Psychopharmacology studies drugs that affect our
Mood
Perception
Cognition
Behaviors
Neuropsychopharmacology is important because
Drug abuse and addiction are prevalent
Provides insight into human behavior
Provides insight into therapeutic drug development
Endogenous Substance
Substance produced inside an organism.
Exogenous Substance
Comes from outside of the body
Dose definition
Drug amount/body weight. Amount of drug per body weight
ED50
Effect dose for 50% of people. AKA The dose in which 50% of people experience effects
Potency
How much of the drug it takes to achieve an effect
TD50
Toxic dose for 50% of people. AKA TD50 = the dose at which 50% of the people have toxic effects.
Therapeutic Index
TD50 / ED50
Higher = more therapeutic, less toxic
Certain safety index
TD1 / ED99
Higher = safer, more certainty of safety
LD50
Lethal dose for 50% of people. AKA The dose at which 50% of people die
Problems of intuition as a way to acquire knowledge
Illusory correlation
Correlation =/= causation. Third variable problem
Susceptible to bias (Ex: eugenics, bigotry)
Overconfidence - Dunning-kruger effect
Observation as a way to acquire knowledge
Critical to good science: empiricism
Works best with objective measures
Still not enough to acquire the best information about the world
Bias and limited explanatory power
Scientific skepticism
Question authority, intuition and beliefs
Systematic doubt and continual testing
Careful with extreme skepticism/ extreme postmodernity: these are the tools of obfuscation.
Objective Psychoactive Drug Effects
Easily measurable
Subjective Psychoactive Drug Effects
Resistant to measurements, can only be measured indirectly
Pharmacodynamics
Mechanical effects of drugs
Pharmacokinesis
Study of how drugs move throughout the body. From entrance to exit.
Pharmacogenetics
How different genes lead to differences in pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinesis
Instrumental drug use
When someone takes a drug for a purpose
Recreational drug use
When someone takes a drug for fun, just for experience
Scientific method
Observation, Idea, Consult past research, hypothesis, design study, ethical approval, collect data, analyze data, modify and repeat (if hypothesis wrong) , consider implications of results, build theories.
Materialism
Scientific principle that states the universe is made of matter and energy. Therefore, everything in the universe is measurable, observable, predictable and refers to the laws of physics.
Universalism
Science is systematically structured. It uses objective and accepted methods within discipline.
Communality
Scientific principle that states that methods and results must be publicly available. Collaborate instead of competing.
Disinterestedness
Scientific principle that states that science doesn’t have a stake in the outcome.
Organized skepticism
Scientific principle that accounts science to more scrutiny than any other field. Science requires things like peer reviews and reproducibility.
Conceptual variable
Not easily measured. We want to turn them into measured variables (quantifiable).
Operational variable
To operationalize a variable is to capture a way to measure it.
Independent variable
Variable that the scientists manipulate
Dependent variable
Variable that is being measured
Situational variables (Or extraneous variable)
Aspects of the experiment. How controlled the situation is
Participant variables
humans are different and cause noise in data.
Non-experimental method
Correlational method
Only correlation
There is no true independent variable - there is no way of controlling it (ex: age)
Positive or negative correlation
Experimental method
I.V. and D.V.
Random assignment
Causality - covariation of cause and effect
Temporal precedence
No more plausible alternative explanation (Should not have a confounding variable)
Clinical drug studies should have a
Placebo as control (exception: if treatment already exists)
Treatment arms
Different levels of the independent variable
Blinded procedures
Single blind study
Participant does not have info. Reduces demand characteristics.
Blinded procedures
Double blind study
Neither the participant nor the researcher knows the info. No research bias.
Blinded procedures
Open label
Everyone knows the dose or placebo. Usual for dangerous drugs.
Vehicle condition
When the control is 0 dose. Rats don’t have expectations on drugs. Not a placebo.
Animals are used for psychopharmacological research.
To understand basic mechanisms. They have high predictive value. When there are no viable alternatives.
Clinical trials
Phases of the experiment with different goals, dose, duration of treatment and participants involved.
