Explore the system
Change the mechanism, watch the synapse
Start with normal transmission. Select a molecular target and compare its acute and chronic consequences.
Sources and model limits
Original schematic. Positions show relationships; structures and concentrations are not to scale.
- Julien's Primer of Drug Action · 15 · 3 · Change the mechanism, watch the synapse · PDF 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 · 3.3, 3.7, 3.10
- Professor deck 3 · Monoamine clearance / transporters · PDF 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
- IUPHAR recommendations · Supplement: inverse agonism and allosteric terminology
- Assay Guidance Manual · Supplement: agonists, antagonists and inverse agonists
- Monoamine transporter research · Supplement: amphetamine-related vesicular and membrane transport
Course notes and existing practice
Learning objective
Separate questions about drug handling from questions about drug action and behavior.
Two directions of influence
Pharmacology studies drug action. Pharmacokinetics asks how the body affects a drug; pharmacodynamics asks how a drug affects the body, including the brain. The direction of the question matters even when both processes contribute to one observed effect.
Supplemental visual
Pharmacokinetics: the body affects the drug, for example by removing it. Pharmacodynamics: the drug affects the body, for example by changing receptor activity. The arrows describe two questions about the same interaction, not two separate drugs or a required sequence.
Original PolyDiscipline learning support, based on this lesson and professor deck 1, PDF page 3.
Supplemental knowledge check
Original PolyDiscipline learning support, based on this lesson and professor deck 1, PDF page 3.
Adding behavior
Psychopharmacology studies how psychoactive drugs affect brain and behavior. The deck emphasizes that explaining behavior requires more than identifying a molecular target. Delivery and time course connect this distinction to the course’s later biopsychosocial themes.
Supplemental explanation
Original PolyDiscipline learning support, based on this lesson and professor deck 1, PDF page 3.
- Pharmacology
- The study of drug action.
- Pharmacokinetics
- How the body affects a drug.
- Pharmacodynamics
- How a drug affects the body.
- Psychopharmacology
- The study of psychoactive drug effects on brain and behavior.
Supplemental explanation
Original PolyDiscipline learning support, based on this lesson and professor deck 1, PDF page 3.
Supplemental knowledge check
Original PolyDiscipline learning support, based on this lesson and professor deck 1, PDF page 3.
Supplemental explanation
Original PolyDiscipline learning support, based on this lesson and professor deck 1, PDF page 3.
Professor deck 1, PDF pages 3. Explanation and terminology are paraphrased course material. Examples and study prompts are original, unscored teaching aids. Source conformance is separate from scientific or clinical review.
Worked examples are original instructional illustrations; they are not professor quotations or exam requirements.