The Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (DPET) is actively engaged in three areas that relate pharmacology to behavior of the integrated organism: (1) drug and alcohol abuse, (2) stress, anxiety and affective disorders and (3) behavioral neuropharmacology. The focus of this area is on the development and implementation of model systems that have high predictive and construct validity, reliability, and which lend themselves to precise and objective quantification. In addition to the preclinical investigation of novel compounds that promise to be of clinical use in various psychiatric diseases, a particular emphasis of this research is to integrate measurements at the behavioral level with concurrent physiological and neurochemical assays. The objective of the following efforts is to understand the mechanisms by which prototypical and novel investigational compounds achieve their effects in the integrated organism.

Using a series of experimental models, Dr. Jeanne M. Fahey is interested in understanding the behavioral consequences of tolerance during chronic exposure to benzodiazepines and the subsequent discontinuation syndromes observed following medication withdrawal. These behavioral alterations are, in turn, associated with changes in the regulation, expression and function of the GABAA receptor. Correlation of these demonstrated changes in behavior with molecular changes in the GABAA receptor is a major focus of her laboratory.

Dr. Klaus A. Miczek is investigating oral alcohol consumption or intravenous cocaine self-administration with concurrent measurement of brain amines and peptides via in vivo microdialysis, and autonomic and endocrine rhythmicity via telemetry.

Dr. Louis Shuster is interested in the behavioral effects of psychostimulant and narcotic compounds.

Dr. Michael L. Thompson

Because acetylcholine (ACh) receptors act as sensory gateways in the insect nervous system, they have an important role in adjusting behavior to external events. Dr. Barry A. Trimmer is interested in the roles played by nicotinic and muscarinic ACh receptors in controlling and adapting simple behaviors in Manduca larvae. His laboratory is also interested in the role played by the nitric oxide cGMP signaling system in controlling behavior.