PSY 2301 Lecture 8: _drugs_hormones

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 2301
• Professor: Andra Smith

Document Summary

Influence the brain and behaviour: focus on new research: neural basis of. Drug cravings: principles of psychopharmacology, classification of psychoactive drugs, drugs, experience, context, and genes, hormones. Psychopharmacology: study of how drugs affect the nervous system and behaviour. Drugs: chemical compounds administered to produce a desired change in the body. Psychoactive drug: substance that acts to alter mood, thought, or behaviour and is used to manage neuropsychological illness. They must be small and uncharged or they must be structurally similar to a substance that already has an active transporter that allows it to pass the bbb. Older individuals are more sensitive to drugs: less effective barriers and less effective at eliminating drugs, body size: Smaller individuals are more sensitive to drugs: fewer body fluids to dilute drugs, sex. Females are more sensitive to drugs: smaller than men on average. Drug action at synapses: most psychoactive drugs exert their effects by influencing chemical reactions at synapses, agonist.