General Pharmacology
The Substances Main Page
Whereas we are all working in the area of drugs, substances that influence brain activity, most of us have had no instruction into how our brain works, let alone the way in which drugs influence it. We are often told we do not need this knowledge. And this for two reasons:
For that matter, doctors working in this area have only slightly more knowledge of the drugs under consideration than do social workers, for although doctors have studied some general pharmacology, their specific knowledge concerns prescription drugs. They can however more easily pick this knowledge up because of their grounding in general pharmacology.
So, as a welltrained social worker, psychologist, etc. you start working as a 'drug expert' with no notion of the pharmacological effects of the different drugs; but that is of course nonsense. In the first place the care and treatment of drug addicts is becoming less and less directed towards abstinence, and 'harm reduction' does require solid knowledge of the drugs themselves. Even if your work is geared towards abstention you should know which aspects of your client's behavior are drugrelated and which are not. You cannot know that without actual knowledge of the drugs. As a 'drug expert' you should have command of this knowledge, even if you have no medical training as such.
These pages also gives a survey of the basic knowledge that is needed. The first part covers the fundamentals: some general pharmacology, the science that studies the effects of the administration of substances on the living organism. This is necessary for psychopharmacology, the study of substances which affect the mind, as is understanding of the structure and working of the nervous system and the processes that play a role at that level. The biological side of human behavior. Biological differences are also covered, but these are minor compared to the similarities.
Pharmacology is a medical science which concerns our body. Psychopharmacology then, concerns our minds, a 'fullbodied' science. We also have 'ethnopharmacology', folkpharmacology. This science studies the use of substances in different primitive cultures. The first scientists to work in this area were mainly interested in the 'magic potions' which were used within a ritualistic framework; that was psychopharmaca. That framework formed the context of 'everyday' psychopharmacology because the use of substances which influence the mind has become rooted in the daily life of human existence. This has always been the case and there is no reason to assume it will ever be different. The Greek word 'pharmakon' means 'something that you take/administer to achieve something', and depending on the context, the meaning shifts from 'stimulant' through 'medicine' to 'poison'.
This context is determined mainly by the individual and the society around him/her. What affects the mind, affects human perception and in this way alone psychopharmaca influences the context of the individual. If the reactions of others also become involved in this, the circle closes again.
No matter how important pharmacology may be, the effects of drugs are not the only determinant. In addition to influence by the drug we have the influence of the 'set', one's individual, mental constitution, and the 'setting', the environment, as the late Norman Zinberg NOTE 1 wrote in a book that should be required reading for all 'drug experts'. The human animal cannot be compared to a laboratory animal, so put pharmacology into perspective. But know what you have to put into perspective. Never say 'just say no'!
General Pharmacology
The Substances Main Page
1995 DrugText Web Lab