Drugs & Addiction Exam #2 (Ch.5 Psychopharmacology)

Front 1

Psychopharmacology

Back 1

the branch of psychology concerned with the effects of drugs on the mind and behavior

Front 2

Biological characteristics of the user

Back 2

Inherited differences in reactions to drugs: Initial sensitivity
Gender
Weight
Age

Front 3

Psychological characteristics of the user

Back 3

Sensation seeking: The need for sensations and experiences to have variety, novelty, and complexity
Stress reduction motivation
The "addictive personality"

Front 4

Drug expectancy

Back 4

What a person anticipates will happen when taking a drug

Front 5

What affect drug expectancies?

Back 5

Experiences, beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes. Drug expectancies are based on previous experiences with a drug

Front 6

The effects of drug expectancies

Back 6

Drug expectancies influence how people conduct themselves when taking a drug

Expectancy effects may produce placebo effects: the anticipated effect of a drug occurs even if a neutral substance is consumed

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Expectancy also affects:

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The quality of a drug experience
The interpretation of sensations
The outcome of drug combinations
People differ in their reactions to a drug in a given setting

Front 8

Social and environmental factors

Back 8

Environment includes:
Laws about drug availability
Places where drugs are used
Number and actions of people present when drugs are used

Alcohol, marijuana, and hallucinogens are sensitive to the environmental setting

Front 9

Dispositional tolerance (aka Drug disposition tolerance)

Back 9

An increase in the rate at which a drug is metabolized

Front 10

Functional tolerance (aka pharmacodynamics tolerance)

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The CNS becomes less sensitive to the effects of the drug:
Acute tolerance occurs within 1 dose
Protracted (chronic) tolerance requires regular or chronic repetition of doses

Front 11

Behavioral or learned tolerance

Back 11

Compensate for the drug's effects

Front 12

Cross-tolerance

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Tolerance to one drug may extend to related drugs

Front 13

Mixed tolerance

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Tolerance develops to one effect of a drug, but not to the other effects of the drug (i.e heroin: habituation to "high" but not the nausea

Front 14

Reverse tolerance

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Sensitization (need less drug to get "high" i.e. marijuana

Front 15

Cell adaptation theory (explanations of tolerance)

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Cells adjust to the effects of the drug at particular dose and can maintain a normal level of function in its presence, or homeostasis. Need more drug to disrupt cell function

Front 16

Reduced synthesis of neurotransmitters

Back 16

more drug needed

Front 17

Down-regulation

Back 17

reducing the number of receptor sites in neuron

Front 18

Tolerance is in part ____?

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learned

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Learned cues

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Learned cues may trigger counter-reactions opposite to the effects of the drug

Front 20

Classical conditioning (mechanisms)

Back 20

"people places & things" as w/ drug elicit Conditioned Responses including "urges" & withdrawal

Front 21

Opponent process theory

Back 21

Some CR's have effects opposite to the drug effects that counteract disruption & maintain homeostasis. More drug is needed to produce original effects

Front 22

Reinforcer (Behavioral pharmacology: Operant conditioning )

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A consequence of an action that makes the action more likely to recur. Reinforcers are most effective when they are presented immediately following a behavior

Front 23

Punisher (Behavioral pharmacology: Operant conditioning )

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A consequence of an action that makes the action less likely to recur

Front 24

Self-administration studies (Behavioral pharmacology: Operant conditioning )

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The reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse maintain drug-taking behavior

Front 25

What leads to addiction more frequently?

Back 25

Methods of drug use with very quick effects:
Smoking (crack)
IV drug use (heroin)

Front 26

Why is initial drug use not the result of reinforcement?

Back 26

Repeating the experience may be influenced by positive reinforcement (e.g. stimulation of pleasure centers"
Tolerance requires increasing doses. Practice.

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Negative reinforcement (operant principles)

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Behavioral eliminates negative experience
Withdrawal affects can be reduced by taking another dose

Front 28

Early use of drugs may be done for negative reinforcement, why?

Back 28

As a way to escape anxiety or bad mood
Escape boredom

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Punishment for drug use is delayed, which makes it what?

Back 29

Less effective

Front 30

Punishing consequences of continued drug use

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people lose money, job, friends, family, home, health, etc.

Front 31

The drug discrimination study (Applying operant principles)

Back 31

Train a rat to press a lever for food reinforcement
In different sessions, inject the rat with a drug, or with placebo saline solution
Put the rat in a chamber with 2 levers: Pressing one lever gets food if the drug is injected, the other gets food if the placebo was injected
Rat learns to respond appropriately: drug functions as signal

Front 32

The drug discrimination study - continued (Applying operant principles)

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Study can help us explain bases of perceived similarities/differences between internal changes produces by different drugs & different doses

Front 33

Conflict paradigm

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Train a rat to press a lever to get food reinforcement:
Then add electric shock punishment for the same lever press response
The rat decreases the rate of lever pressing: a conflict effect

Front 34

Conflict

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A history of both reinforcement (food) & punishment (shock) for the same response

Front 35

Conflict effect

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Typically the introduction of shock suppresses responding. However, if rat is injected with anti-anxiety drugs (e.g. benzodiazepine - Valium, Ativan), the conflict effect is reduced/responding is not suppressed

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Benzodiazepine has what effects?

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Anticonflict effects

Front 37

Are animal models useful?

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Generalizability: Researchers find similar patterns
Some causal relationships can only be studies in animals (e.g. determining LD levels)

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Ethical issues in human behavioral pharmacology

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The Nuremberg Code: governs scientific research
Atrocities committed in Nazi Germany under the banner of "biomedical research"
Risk/benefit analysis

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Treatment condition

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People in one group receive the drug

Front 40

Placebo control condition

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People in a comparison group receive an inactive substance

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Double-blind studies

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Neither the participants nor the researchers know who is in the drug or the placebo condition

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Guidelines for testing & marketing a new drug

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Clinical trials and FDA approval
Chemical name: Structural formula of the drug molecule
Brand name or trademark
Generic name: a shorter, general name for the drug

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Generic drugs

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Drug patents expire 17 years after the drug is approved
Thereafter, other companies may sell their versions of the same compound.
Generic drugs are equally safe and effective, and usually cheaper

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Advances in discovering new drugs

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New natural sources: soil microbes, and animal and plants in the ocean

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New processes of synthesis

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Connect drugs to what we have learned about neurotransmitters and receptors