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