PSYC62H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Mental Disorder, Pharmacology, Codeine
Document Summary
Psychopharmacology: is the study oh how drugs affect mood, perception, thinking or behaviour. Psychoactive drugs: drugs that affect mood, perception, thinking or behaviour by acting in the nervous system. Psychopharmacology attempts to relate the actions and effects of drugs to issues in psychology. Behavioural pharmacology: the study of how drugs affect behaviour. Neuropsychopharmacology: the study of how drugs affect the nervous system and how these nervous system changes alter behaviour. Drugs do not take into account the substances that are made naturally within the body, such as dopamine. But dopamine can also be administered as a drug to patients in order to increase their heart rate. Vitamins and herbal supplements are classified as drugs. Psychoactive drugs can be used for instrumental use or recreational use. The term instrumental use is given such that taking the drug address a specific purpose. Instrumental drugs go hand in hand with therapeutic drugs to treat a physical or mental disorder.
