Psychopharmacology was born some 50 years ago as a relatively narrow clinical discipline with LSD-25 and chlorpromazine, among a few others, being the early prototypes. In the course of its development, psychopharmacology grew into a wider scientific discipline as psychoactive drugs were assumed to interact with biochemical processes at the synapses to influence transmission of activities among neurons in producing their effects. Thus biochemistry and neuropharmacology have been adopted as collaborative disciplines and this larger field was named neuropsychopharmacology. More recently it has been recognized that, at the clinical level, neuropsychopharmacology has also extensive contact with social issues so that there is an increasing emphasis on translational research in recent announcements from the National Institute of Mental Health in the USA to facilitate and encourage collaboration among clinicians, basic science and social science researchers. To help the process of translational research in mental health, a new organizing principle is proposed based on a novel concept of Psychonucleotides (PNs). There are two types of PNs: Simple PNs (SPN) and Complex ones (CPN) and they are seen as temporary modules mediating meaning between the linguistic and neuronal levels in the brain. As the proposed mediating takes the integrative processes of the whole brain into consideration the development of large scale neuronal theories for translational research should became easier and more comprehensive by going beyond the focus on the cognitive cortex and taking also emotional and social processes into consideration. (+info)
Pioneer in behavioral pharmacology: a tribute to Joseph V. Brady.
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The contributions of Joseph V. Brady to behavioral pharmacology span more than 50 years and range from early studies using the Estes-Skinner (conditioned emotional response) procedure to examine drug effects and various physiological processes in experimental animals to the implementation of mobile methadone treatment services and to small group behavioral analyses in simulated space environments. This expansive range of activities is based on Brady's insight and innovative use of behavioral procedures, his spirited and unabashed enthusiasm for the discipline and its philosophical underpinnings, together with a collegiality and commitment to the experimental analysis of behavior that is both legendary and inspirational. These contributions are summarized and highlighted in this tribute that focuses primarily on Brady's contributions to behavioral pharmacology but which also acknowledges his conceptual and technical contributions spanning multiple disciplines. (+info)
Rat AA-26: behavioral pharmacology science pioneer.
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Rat AA-26, despite 1950s "state of the art," nonetheless generated the first set of behavioral pharmacology cumulative records to appear in the weekly journal Science, the century-old publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The laboratory exploits of this dedicated animal called early attention to the methodological fruits of a marriage between pharmacology and the experimental analysis of behavior. (+info)
Anxiety levels and related pharmacological drug treatment: a memorandum for the third millennium.
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Anxiety disorders frequently affect the general population and have a lifetime prevalence ranging from 13.6% to 28.8%. This paper reviews full articles dealing with the pharmacological treatments of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder (PD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This review also attempts to evaluate the use of new drugs acting on several neurotransmitters involved in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders. Major advances include the development of glutamatergic drugs for treating GAD and OCD. Further randomized controlled trials to test the effect of glutamatergic agents in the treatment of OCD and GAD would be warranted. (+info)
Towards a better understanding of the psychopharmacology of nutmeg: Activities in the mouse tetrad assay.
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