WEEK 1
Lecture 1
❖ Pharmacology → knowledge about drugs or medicines, the science that deals with
studying the reciprocal actions, between pharmacological substances and physiological
processes
❖ “Drug” in English → medication with a physiological effect
❖ “Drug” in Dutch → Psychoactive substance for abuse
❖ Chemical structure for classification → not used cause the same structure can have
different effects, it doesn’t say much about how the medication affects ur body
❖ Working mechanism for classification → would be ideal cause gives info about the
medication itself but the working mechanism is not known generally
❖ Behavioral effects for classification → mostly used cause it’s the easiest and is linked to
the disorder being treated
❖ ATC (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical) → focuses on the behavioral effects of the
medication meaning it is indication based (someone w depression gets prescribed
antidepressants), older and promoted by gold standard (WHO)
➢ Cons: it is also used for other disorders than the primary disorder, and stigma/patient
adherence
❖ NbN (Neuroscience-based Nomenclature) → focuses on the working mechanism
(pharmacologically driven), newer and promoted by taskforce 5 organizations
➢ Cons: now acknowledged by WHO, lack of sufficient evidence
❖ ATC psychotropic drug main classes
➢ Antipsychotics
▪ Conventional antipsychotic (haloperidol)
▪ Atypical (risperidone)
➢ Antidepressants
▪ Tricyclic (imipramine)
▪ SSRI (Prozac)
▪ MonoAmine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI) (Nardil)
➢ Anxiolytics (anti-anxiety medication)
▪ Benzodiazepines (valium)
▪ Non-benzodiazepines (buspirone)
➢ Mood stabilizers
▪ Lithium
➢ Hypnotics
❖ ATC other relevant drug classes
➢ Anti-epileptics → against seizures (epilepsy)
▪ Benzodiazepines, clonazepam, clorazepaat
➢ Stimulants
▪ Cocaine, amphetamine (speed), methylphenidate (Ritalin), caffeine, nicotine
➢ Narcotic pain killers
▪ Opioids, morphine, codeine, heroin
➢ CNS suppressors
➢ Psychedelics & hallucinogens
▪ LSD, marijuana, hashish, mescaline, psilocybin
,❖ 4 stages of administration
➢ Absorption → given by injection or orally, should be taken by blood
▪ Oral
▪ Rectal (the other way of oral ☺ )
▪ Topical (regional effect)
• Skin (cream, nicotine patch
• Oral mucosa → sublingual (underneath the tongue where there are a lot of
blood vessels), buccal (in the cheek)
▪ Parenteral (into the bloodstream) (quick reaction)
• Intravenous (through the veins)
• Intramuscular (into the muscle, used to control the dosage, ex. Vitamin B12
to have a deposit of it that gradually releases the vitamin over time)
• Subcutaneously (underneath the skin)
▪ Inhalation
➢ Distribution → so that the blood could distribute it throughout the body
▪ In blood → albumin is where the medication is being transported by
▪ Extracellular (outside of the cell, outside of the plasma)
▪ Intracellular (in the cells, in the water in body cells)
▪ Speed of distribution depends on lipid solubility (the ease in which the
medication gets dissolved and pass over the membranes in the body)
• Through membranes: passive diffusion following concentration gradient (no
need to put extra energy, it levels out over the different tissues where its
located and everywhere is approximately the same gradient) (tougher the
membrane the harder to achieve concentration gradient)
• Higher lipid solubility → faster distribution
➢ Metabolism → it has to go to different sides of the body so it can be converted by
the body and have an effect
➢ Excretion → for the medication to stop at one point or to see someone in their
natural behavior to decide if they still need the medication, elimination from body
❖ Pharmacokinetics → how does the body process the medication, has an effect on
absorption, distribution, interaction w receptor, elimination
➢ It has to be done by bloodstream which takes approx. 1 minute bc we have
capillaries
❖ Pharmacodynamics → how the body respond to the medication
➢ Tells you something about the interaction medication between receptors, used to
determine pharmacological, therapeutic and toxic effect
➢ Subtherapeutic range → there is a pharmacological action bc medication is in your
system but it’s not helping the therapeutic level yet
➢ Therapeutic range → the range you want the medication to be in in terms of
medication so you can have the medication prescribed
➢ The concentration of the medication changes over time
▪ Time 0 → the minute medication enters the body, large peak in the plasma
concentration bc it’s not distributed yet
▪ After the administration → large decrease in the plasma concentration bc it goes
into the tissues
➢ Half-lives (the times it takes for the percentage of the medication to halve in
concentration)
, ▪Distribution half-live (alpha phase) → the first thing that happens after the
administration of the med, the moment we look at from the administration to
50% that is distributed throughout the body, tells us when the medication starts
working so the onset of action
▪ Elimination half-live (beta phase) → liver degrades the medication and the
kidneys excrete the 50% of it, tells us about when the med stops working so the
stop action
❖ Neurons (sends signals and have a global structure)
➢ Cell body (soma)
➢ Dendrites w spines and without spines
➢ Axon --> neuron sends a signal towards the next neuron
➢ Synapses (anterograde) --> in the logical direction that is generally used for signal
transmission
▪ Axodendritic --> from the axon of the presynaptic neuron sends a signal to
synaptic celft towards the dendrites where the post/next neuron receives the
message
▪ Axosomatic --> axon sends the signal to the cell body, has a quicker effect bc it
doesn’t have travel through the dendrites
▪ Axoaxonic --> axon to axon
➢ Axonal ending forms synapses with postsynaptic neurons which is an active process
that requires energy (mitochondria provides the energy) (NT is stored in vesicles
Lecture 1
❖ Pharmacology → knowledge about drugs or medicines, the science that deals with
studying the reciprocal actions, between pharmacological substances and physiological
processes
❖ “Drug” in English → medication with a physiological effect
❖ “Drug” in Dutch → Psychoactive substance for abuse
❖ Chemical structure for classification → not used cause the same structure can have
different effects, it doesn’t say much about how the medication affects ur body
❖ Working mechanism for classification → would be ideal cause gives info about the
medication itself but the working mechanism is not known generally
❖ Behavioral effects for classification → mostly used cause it’s the easiest and is linked to
the disorder being treated
❖ ATC (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical) → focuses on the behavioral effects of the
medication meaning it is indication based (someone w depression gets prescribed
antidepressants), older and promoted by gold standard (WHO)
➢ Cons: it is also used for other disorders than the primary disorder, and stigma/patient
adherence
❖ NbN (Neuroscience-based Nomenclature) → focuses on the working mechanism
(pharmacologically driven), newer and promoted by taskforce 5 organizations
➢ Cons: now acknowledged by WHO, lack of sufficient evidence
❖ ATC psychotropic drug main classes
➢ Antipsychotics
▪ Conventional antipsychotic (haloperidol)
▪ Atypical (risperidone)
➢ Antidepressants
▪ Tricyclic (imipramine)
▪ SSRI (Prozac)
▪ MonoAmine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI) (Nardil)
➢ Anxiolytics (anti-anxiety medication)
▪ Benzodiazepines (valium)
▪ Non-benzodiazepines (buspirone)
➢ Mood stabilizers
▪ Lithium
➢ Hypnotics
❖ ATC other relevant drug classes
➢ Anti-epileptics → against seizures (epilepsy)
▪ Benzodiazepines, clonazepam, clorazepaat
➢ Stimulants
▪ Cocaine, amphetamine (speed), methylphenidate (Ritalin), caffeine, nicotine
➢ Narcotic pain killers
▪ Opioids, morphine, codeine, heroin
➢ CNS suppressors
➢ Psychedelics & hallucinogens
▪ LSD, marijuana, hashish, mescaline, psilocybin
,❖ 4 stages of administration
➢ Absorption → given by injection or orally, should be taken by blood
▪ Oral
▪ Rectal (the other way of oral ☺ )
▪ Topical (regional effect)
• Skin (cream, nicotine patch
• Oral mucosa → sublingual (underneath the tongue where there are a lot of
blood vessels), buccal (in the cheek)
▪ Parenteral (into the bloodstream) (quick reaction)
• Intravenous (through the veins)
• Intramuscular (into the muscle, used to control the dosage, ex. Vitamin B12
to have a deposit of it that gradually releases the vitamin over time)
• Subcutaneously (underneath the skin)
▪ Inhalation
➢ Distribution → so that the blood could distribute it throughout the body
▪ In blood → albumin is where the medication is being transported by
▪ Extracellular (outside of the cell, outside of the plasma)
▪ Intracellular (in the cells, in the water in body cells)
▪ Speed of distribution depends on lipid solubility (the ease in which the
medication gets dissolved and pass over the membranes in the body)
• Through membranes: passive diffusion following concentration gradient (no
need to put extra energy, it levels out over the different tissues where its
located and everywhere is approximately the same gradient) (tougher the
membrane the harder to achieve concentration gradient)
• Higher lipid solubility → faster distribution
➢ Metabolism → it has to go to different sides of the body so it can be converted by
the body and have an effect
➢ Excretion → for the medication to stop at one point or to see someone in their
natural behavior to decide if they still need the medication, elimination from body
❖ Pharmacokinetics → how does the body process the medication, has an effect on
absorption, distribution, interaction w receptor, elimination
➢ It has to be done by bloodstream which takes approx. 1 minute bc we have
capillaries
❖ Pharmacodynamics → how the body respond to the medication
➢ Tells you something about the interaction medication between receptors, used to
determine pharmacological, therapeutic and toxic effect
➢ Subtherapeutic range → there is a pharmacological action bc medication is in your
system but it’s not helping the therapeutic level yet
➢ Therapeutic range → the range you want the medication to be in in terms of
medication so you can have the medication prescribed
➢ The concentration of the medication changes over time
▪ Time 0 → the minute medication enters the body, large peak in the plasma
concentration bc it’s not distributed yet
▪ After the administration → large decrease in the plasma concentration bc it goes
into the tissues
➢ Half-lives (the times it takes for the percentage of the medication to halve in
concentration)
, ▪Distribution half-live (alpha phase) → the first thing that happens after the
administration of the med, the moment we look at from the administration to
50% that is distributed throughout the body, tells us when the medication starts
working so the onset of action
▪ Elimination half-live (beta phase) → liver degrades the medication and the
kidneys excrete the 50% of it, tells us about when the med stops working so the
stop action
❖ Neurons (sends signals and have a global structure)
➢ Cell body (soma)
➢ Dendrites w spines and without spines
➢ Axon --> neuron sends a signal towards the next neuron
➢ Synapses (anterograde) --> in the logical direction that is generally used for signal
transmission
▪ Axodendritic --> from the axon of the presynaptic neuron sends a signal to
synaptic celft towards the dendrites where the post/next neuron receives the
message
▪ Axosomatic --> axon sends the signal to the cell body, has a quicker effect bc it
doesn’t have travel through the dendrites
▪ Axoaxonic --> axon to axon
➢ Axonal ending forms synapses with postsynaptic neurons which is an active process
that requires energy (mitochondria provides the energy) (NT is stored in vesicles
