Neuropsychopharmacology Basics Flashcards
Psychopharmacology
How drugs affect mood, perception, thinking or behaviour.
Behavioural pharmacology
How drugs affect behaviour.
Neuropsychopharmacology
How drugs affect the nervous system, and how these nervous system changes affect behaviour.
Drugs
Administered substances that affect physiological functioning.
Exogenous (to the body)
Produced outside the body. Drugs are exogenous.
Endogenous (to the body)
Found/produced within the body/internally.
Instrumental Drug Use
Usage of a drug to serve a specific purpose.
Eg. Taking tylenol for a headache would be instrumental drug use.
Recreational Drug Use
Usage of a drug specifically for its effects/for enjoyment, rather than using the drug to serve a secondary purpose.
Trade Name (drugs)
A trademarked name for a drug assigned by the company that created the drug.
Eg. Tylenol, Adderall, Prozac
Generic Name (drugs)
A classifying, non-trademarked name for the drug, usually related to its active ingredient.
Eg. Acetaminophen is Tylenol’s generic name. Ibuprofen is Advil’s generic name.
Chemical Name (drugs)
A scientific name based on the drug’s chemical/molecular structure. Typically only used by chemists and pharmacologists.
Eg. Adderall is (2S)-1-phenylpropan-2-amine.
Street Name (drugs)
A colloquial name/slang for a type of drug.
Eg. Cocaine is “coke,” PCP/phencyclidine is “angel dust,” LSD is “acid.”
Dose
The amount of a drug administered (in course context, the amount of drug given in proportion to body weight).
Dose-Effect Curve (AKA Dose-Response Curve)
A graph that shows the amount of dose on the x-axis, and the measured effect of said dose on the y-axis.
Potency
The amount of a drug needed to produce a certain effect.
Eg. Fentanyl is a high-potency drug.
ED50
(ED = effective dose) The minimum dose/concentration of a drug to produce a biological response in 50% of individuals.
TD50
(TD = toxic dose) The minimum dose/concentration of a drug in which toxicity occurs in 50% of individuals.
LD50
(LD = lethal dose) The minimum dose/concentration of a drug in which death occurs in 50% of individuals.
Therapeutic Index
TD50/ED50 = therapeutic index
Measures the relative safety of a drug, comparing the amount of a drug that causes therapeutic effect to the amount that causes toxicity.
Certain Safety Index
TD1/ED99 = Certain Safety Index
Also referred to as margin of safety. The dose that causes toxicity in 1% of individuals divided by the dose that causes therapeutic effects in 99% of individuals. This is a more conservative index typically used when working with new drugs.
Pharmacodynamics
The study of molecular, biochemical and physiological actions/effects of certain drugs.
Pharmacokinetics
The study of the movement of drugs throughout the body/how the body interacts with a drug.
Pharmacogenetics
The study of how differences in genetic makeup affect responses to specific drugs.
Objective Drug Effects
Drug effects that can be directly observed by others.
Subjective Drug Effects
Effects of drugs that cannot be directly observed by others. (These effects are self-reported by the individual)
Experimental Research
Research that involves manipulating an independent variable to measure its effect on a dependent variable. In experimental research, other variables are controlled to prevent them impacting the results of the experiment.
Correlational Research
Correlational research measures variables, but does not manipulate or control the variables.
Eg. Surveys are a common form of correlational research.
Independent Variable
A variable that is manipulated by researchers. It stands alone/is not changed by other variables in the experiment.
Eg. The drug dosage given to a subject.
Dependent Variable
The variable being measured or tested in an experiment.
Eg. The amount of hyperactivity in a rat after it is given x dose of methamphetamines. The amount of hyperactivity is the dependent variable.
Positive Correlation
When two variables correlate/move in the same direction/in tandem.
Eg. Spending more time studying correlates with an increased exam score.
Eg. Working less hours at a job correlates with getting paid less.
Negative Correlation
When two variables correlate/move in the opposite direction of one another.
Eg. Lower temperatures outside correlates with people wearing more layers of clothing.
Eg. Having less free time correlates to higher levels of stress.
Third Variable Problem
When a third variable leads to affecting the correlation of two other variables. A third variable explains the correlation between these two variables, rather than the two variables affecting each other.
Eg. A higher amount of fire hydrants in a city correlates with a higher number of dogs. But the reason these two variables correlate has to do with city population size rather than any relationship with dogs and fire hydrants.
Conceptual Variable
The concept/idea of what needs to be measured.
Measured Variable
Comes after a conceptual variable. A variable that can be measured.
Operational Definition
Refers to the definition and measurement of a specific variable within a study.
Situational Variable
A factor in an environment that can unintentionally affect a study’s results.
Participant Variable
Any aspect of a participant that could affect the results of a study.
Eg. Age, gender, sex, education, etc.
Causality
The covariation (correlated variation) of cause and effect.
Confirming causality involves temporal precedence, which is confirming the independent variable occurs prior to the effect/outcome.
Two-arm study
When the effects of a treatment group (arm) are compared with a control group (arm). Participants are randomly assigned to one of the two groups.
Three-arm study
Includes a control group, a placebo group, and a treatment group. Participants are randomly assigned to one of the three groups.
Single-blind procedure
A trial where the researcher/drug administrator knows which research group a participant is part of, but the participants do not.
Double-blind procedure
A trial where both the researcher/drug administrator and the participants do not know what research group each participant is part of.
Open label studies
A trial where both researchers and participants know what treatment participants are being given.
Validity
How accurately a method measures what it is supposed to measure.
Internal validity
The extent to which a cause-and-effect relationship can be established within a study (without control variables influencing the dependent variable).
External validity
How well a study’s findings generalize beyond the study’s conditions.
Eg. If a drug only is tested on adults, it may not be accurate to apply those findings to children as well.
Face validity
How well a test appears to measure what it is supposed to measure.
Construct validity
How well the study’s underlying findings relate to its objective.
P
Predictive validity
How well a model predicts treatment effects.
Animal Test
Forced swim test
A test to understand the effect of an antidepressant. A rodent is forced to swim in a vessel of water but cannot get out. It’s measured how long the rat tries to tread water/escape until it gives up. Rats given antidepressants will fight to swim for longer.
Animal Test
Self-administration
A rodent is in an operant chamber with a lever. It’s linked up to a catheter so drugs can be administered when the animal presses the lever. Seeing the way the animal interacts with the lever differently when administered the drug helps us understand the reinforcing properties and addictive potentials of drugs.
Animal Test
Conditioned place preference or aversion
To see whether a drug has reinforcing (or aversive) effects. Different chambers of an environment are used. The rodent will typically spend more time in whichever chamber they are administered the reinforcing drug in. Can also be used to test aversion; if an experimental drug makes the rodent sick it will spend less time in the chamber the drug was administered in.
Animal Test
Elevated plus maze
Two arms of an elevated maze are enclosed, two arms are open. Rodents fear heights and open spaces. When rats are given anti-anxiety meds, they will spend more time exploring the open arms of the maze.
CCAC
Canadian Council on Animal Care
“The CCAC is the national organization responsible for setting and maintaining standards for the ethical use and care of animals in science in Canada.”
The Three Rs of Ethical Animal Research
Replacement: Seeing if the experiment can be done on a non-animal model. (Eg. isolated brain cells)
Reduction: Reducing the amount of animals being used, calculating the minimum number of animals to get a statistically significant experiment result.
Refinement: Minimizing pain and distress as much as possible within an animal.
Therapeutic Drug Development Steps
- Identify disorder to treat
- Drug synthesis
- Biological experimentation
- Focused screening methods
- Safety pharmacology
- Clinical trials
Steps of Therapeutic Drug Development
Drug synthesis
Step 2 of therapeutic drug development. Chemists synthesize experimental compounds that act on something specific (neurotransmitter, protein etc.). During this stage there are compound names, typically not generic/brand names.
Steps of Therapeutic Drug Development
Biological experimentation
Step 3 of therapeutic drug development. High-throughput (fast processing) screening methods provide basic biological information about promising compounds. Results guide synthesis of further compounds.
Steps of Therapeutic Drug Development
Focused screening methods
Step 4 of therapeutic drug development. Promising compounds are tested against the drug target.
Steps of Therapeutic Drug Development
Safety pharmacology
Step 5 of therapeutic drug development. Tests are used to identify adverse effects and toxic doses.
Steps of Therapeutic Drug Development
Four Phases of Clinical Trials
Phase 1: Low dose given short term in healthy individuals.
Phase 2: Higher dose of the drug given to participants with disorder.
Phase 3: Dose selected based on phase 2 to assess longer-term effects, participants with the disorder as well as other populations and those with coexisting conditions.
Phase 4: Looking at the long term effects of drugs.
Aftermath of Therapeutic Drug Development
Post-marketing surveillance
Monitoring of a drug after it releases to market. Studies long-term effects, adverse reactions, etc.
Materialism
The concept that everything in the universe has a physical basis, and can be measured directly or indirectly.
Universalism
The concept that objective measures/preestablished criteria can be used to quantify phenomena.
