Psychopharmacology study questions
Table of contents
Study questions: week 1 2
Study questions: week 2 7
Study questions: week 3 19
Study questions: week 4 25
Study questions: week 5 35
Study questions: week 6 38
Study questions: week 8 46
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,Study questions: week 1
1. Which two overarching classes of psychoactive substances can be discerned based on
their use?
- Recreative drugs and medicinal drugs.
2. What are the different names that are given to medications once they become
available for prescription, and what is the difference between these names?
- There is the name for the drug itself (and its active ingredients) and there is the brand
name of certain drugs, e.g. xanax.
3. What is pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics? Describe these terms and
understand their difference.
- Pharmacokinetics deals with how a substance enters the body, how it is absorbed and
at what rate, to what degree the substance is broken down and how it leaves the body.
- Pharmacodynamics refers to the biochemical and physiological effects of
substances. These effects pertain to the wide variety of ways that substances interact
with the process of neurotransmission.
4. Medications have a certain indication, meaning the illness, symptoms or disorder for
which they are prescribed. In general, within which area do the indications for
psychoactive substances fall?
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, - Psychoactive substances are substances that influence behavior. The goal of
psychopharmacological research is whether the drug has the desired effect in a
specific group of patients.
5. Describe the most common mechanisms of modulation of neurotransmission along
which psychoactive substances exert their influence on the brain.
- Post-synaptic neurons are the most typical type of receptors.
- Presynaptic:
- Autoreceptors detect the release of neurotransmitters from its own neuron, or
groups of neurons.
- Heteroreceptors modulate synapses from another neuron.
Most drugs affect synaptic transmission by having an effect on:
- Transmitter production;
- Transmitter release;
- Transmitter clearance.
6. Many of the currently used psychoactive substances have been discovered by
serendipity, but once every so often new medications are developed on purpose through
hypothesis-driven research lines. Describe in broad terms the (pre)clinical development
phases which a new medicine has to pass before it can be made available to patients.
Clinical research usually progresses through three phases.
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, - In phase 1, a small group of healthy volunteers is used to study which doses can be
tolerated without problems, by means of a titration process. If the conclusion of phase
1 is that the given dosages are safe for use, phase 2 can start.
- In phase 2, the researchers study possible therapeutic effects in a relatively small
group of patients with the condition that the drug is intended to treat. This study uses
a double-blind, placebo-controlled design. The new drug also has to have better
effects than existing medications.
- In phase 3, the findings of phase 2 must be confirmed in new double-blind,
placebo-controlled studies involving groups of thousands of patients, preferably in
different countries. Phase 3 research is estimated to take around 3.5 years to complete,
and to cost an average of 30 million euros. If the results of phase 3 are also positive,
then the drug can be registered, sold and prescribed. This is when phase 4 occurs.
- In phase 4, after the actual research, chemists and prescribing physicians record any
side effect that may occur.
7. In the development of new medicines, there are many bottle necks. What are the most
important conceptual bottle necks (think for example of brain mechanisms that cause
the disorder)? And what are the most important practical hindrances (for example,
think of pharmacokinetic properties)? And what are financial hindrances?
- The practice of psychopharmacology is challenging. Psychiatric disorders often
have unpredictable courses, complicating comorbid disorders are common and
symptoms may interfere with treatment adherence. Also, most of the current
medications are not fully effective in many patients.
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