Contributions to Behavioral Pharmacology
The relationship in pharmacology between dosage and physiological
response, a "behavior", is an established fact in pharmacology.
Most drugs have two dosage related boundaries that effect the
degree of physiological response in an organism:
- Minimum effective dosage: the dosage below which no physiological
response occurs
- Maximum effective dosage: the dosage above which a decrease in
physiological effects occurs
The dosage determined boundaries listed above make the discipline of pharmacology
suitable for the application of operant conditioning in the determination of
effective drug administration schedules. Skinner, while conducting the operant
conditioning experiments, noticed an effect on the response of the rats to reinforcement
and punishment after the administration of caffeine and benzedrine(Blackman,D.E.,Pellon,R.,1993).
The use of operant conditioning in pharmacology research grew in popularity during
the 1960s, this was partially due to Skinner's meticulous research process and the volume
of data it generated, and eventually behavioral methods become a standard part of
pharmacological research. Many new insights were gained into the possible mechanisms behind
dosage dependent effects;i.e. research on methylphenidate and it's effect on hyperactive children
was suggested as possibly resulting from the rate dependency relationship to maximum dosage(Blackman,D.E.,Pellon,R.,1993).
Operant conditioning thus provided an experimental framework which allowed pharmacologists to
gain a deeper understanding of the interaction between environment and pharmacology.
Behavioral pharmacologists have also developed new explanations for phenomena such as drug
tolerance from operant conditioning studies.A study of rats given amphetamines resulted in
increased tolerance when the drug mediated behavior change resulted in decreased reinforcing
behavior, but otherwise tolerance did not occur(Blackman,D.E.,Pellon,R.,1993). The fact that
psychology is moving away from "simplistic" models while Skinner's "simplistic" theory is
proving invaluable to pharmacology research is perhaps the greatest irony of all.
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