Note from the Author
Welcome to Drugs and Behavior! This book will provide a basic introduction to the biopsychological effects of the major classes of drugs. We’ll discuss the effects of various drugs at the neurochemical and behavioral levels. The first few chapters of this text will lay the groundwork in neuroscience and pharmacology to prepare you for the later chapters when we will discuss specific types of drugs. The material may be difficult, but we encourage you to hang in there and ask for help if you get stuck. You will learn worthwhile information about drugs and behavior if you stay the course. Falling behind early on will make later chapters harder to follow.
Before we begin, a note about this text:
This text is an Open Education Resource (OER) designed for an online platform. OERs are teaching, learning, and research materials that reside in the public domain or are released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2013). Our intent in writing this OER is not to write another dry, all-encompassing textbook explaining everything that you ever wanted to ask about drugs and behavior but were afraid to ask. This OER is a primer for drugs and behavior and is specifically designed to accompany Psych 265 at WSU.
Sometimes in the text, there will be links to outside resources like articles, infographics, videos, and interactive media. We encourage you to explore these resources, but not every resource is required. Important resources will be pointed out in the text, as well as entirely optional ones.
If you have trouble accessing a resource, notify your instructor or teaching assistant, it is possible that the URL was recently changed or taken down. However, rest assured that all the critical information is contained in this text. Again, we hope you enjoy the format, and if you have any feedback, please let us know.