Foundations of Behavioral Pharmacology by Dr. Neurosci

The science of using drugs to treat behavioral disorders is described here in perfect detail. From the beginning, the author is clear that the drugs effect the brain differently, and while you’ll be impulse to say “well duh!” listen to this; a low dose of Epinephrine will make your blood pressure drop, but a higher dose will increase it. This is one of the tricky factors in prescribing medications to a patient. The dosage has to be carefully monitored, because not all drugs have the “greater dose, greater effect.”

The chapter on hallucinogens was interesting because it discusses the notion of “absorption” in the effects of the drugs. Mescaline, for instance, doesn’t get digested by the liver, so the effects last longer. Others, like PCP, have few problems with absorption,  but create more delirium than anesthesia, which is why it was taken off the market. Then again, there have been many drugs that didn’t work. Anybody remember Thalidomide?

Though I think this is a wonderful book, I would like to have seen some photos of how patients are effected by the drugs. While this book is a serious piece of medical literature, it could also be formatted for the less “educated” crowd, and become a rather entertaining book on drugs. I can just see a version of this book titled Meds and full of stylish illustrations of all the medications described in this book.