Drugs and Human Behavior - Softcover

Grilly, David M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0205443621 ISBN 13: 9780205443628

Publisher: Pearson, 2005

Synopsis

This text introduces students to the field of psychopharmacology, with special emphasis on the relationships between drugs, their mechanisms of action in the nervous system, and human behavior.

By examining human drug use from historical, societal, and biological perspectives, Grilly provides a rich foundation for understanding drugs affecting the brain and their usage. In addition to describing basic pharmacological principles, Grilly discusses the general factors behind drug tolerance, dependence, and abuse as well as approaches for dealing with these problems. Pharmacotherapy for the major mental disorders is described from both biochemical and clinical efficacy perspectives.  By using the most up-to-date research and by presenting data in concise, jargon-free prose, the author has created one of the most comprehensive and accessible books on the subject.

Information is organized from the general to the specific, beginning with a historical perspective and subsequently moving through coverage of basic pharmacological principles and processes, drug classifications, and approaches to drug tolerance, dependence and abuse.  Grilly then describes the psychological and behavioral effects of specific psychotropic drugs used recreationally and therapeutically, with coverage of their pharmacokinetics, mechanisms of action, common side effects, and current issues regarding their uses.

About this title

From the Back Cover

By examining human drug use from historical, societal, and biological perspectives, Grilly: Drugs and Human Behavior, Fifth Edition, provides a rich foundation for understanding drugs affecting the brain. In addition to describing basic pharmacological principles, this text discusses the general factors behind drug tolerance, dependence, and abuse and approaches for dealing with these problems. Pharmacotherapy for the major mental disorders is described from both biochemical and clinical efficacy perspectives. By using the most up-to-date research, and by presenting data in concise, jargon-free prose, the author has created one of the most comprehensive and accessible books on the subject.

• Incorporates the most up-to-date research to provide students with the most accurate information in the field, including a detailed discussion of new perspectives on the mechanisms behind antidepressant drugs and coverage of new FDA–approved drugs used in the treatment of a variety of mental disorders.
• Contains concise coverage of the most important aspects of a broad range of drugs that humans use to alter mood, mental function, and behavior.
• Discusses a variety of mechanisms behind drug tolerance, dependence, and abuse phenomena, and links them together. Provides a number of approaches for prevention and for reduction of their consequences.
• Describes the biochemical bases of action and the clinical efficacy of drugs commonly used in the treatment of mental and emotional disorders.
• Describes new drug treatments and current trends in abuse and dependence. Includes an updated drug index at the end of the text.
• Offers more coverage of potential pharmacotherapies for drug abuse and uses of opiates for controlling chronic pain.
• Provides expanded coverage of benefits from the use of atypical antipsychotics as first-line treatments for schizophrenia, exposing alternative treatment options.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0205443621
• ISBN 13: 9780205443628
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 456