Psychopharmacology

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The Psychopharmacology (from ancient Greek ψῡχή , psȳchē , for "soul"; φάρμακον , pharmakon , and for "drug" λογία , logia , for "teaching"), even neuropharmacology or behavioral pharmacology goes to Emil Kraepelin back and examined the effects of so-called active ingredients on the nervous system as well as on experience and behavior.

Active ingredients can e.g. B. psychotropic drugs or other psychotropic substances . These are exogenous chemical substances that are not necessary for normal cell function, but can cause effects on a physiological level and in experience and behavior. The active site of action of an active substance, which is of interest to psychopharmacologists, is the central nervous system (CNS). An active ingredient reaches the central nervous system by being administered intravenously, intraperitoneally , intramuscularly or subcutaneously , after a while it reaches the blood plasma and then crosses the so-called blood-brain barrier . Once an active ingredient has crossed the blood-brain barrier, it can act on the CNS.

The decisive factor for psychopharmacologists is the way in which an active ingredient:

works in the CNS and what effects are associated with it on the experience and behavioral level.

Problems in psychopharmacology are the high response to placebos in mental disorders, the different responses to the substances in individual people, the relatively low effectiveness and the lack of knowledge about the causes of the mental disorders.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bangen, Hans: History of the drug therapy of schizophrenia. Berlin 1992, pp. 27–31 Kraepelin and Bleuler on drugs ISBN 3-927408-82-4
  2. ↑ JS Meyer, LS Quenzer: Psychopharmacology: Drugs, the Brain and Behavior . Sinauer Associates. 2004, ISBN 0-87893-534-7 .

literature

  • Gerhard founder, Otto Benkert: Manual of Psychopharmacotherapy 2nd edition , Springer Verlag 2011, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York, ISBN 978-3-540-20475-6