Advances in the Study of Drug Abuse

Reviews the book, Advances in Behavioral Pharmacology, Vol. 4 edited by Travis Thompson, Peter B. Dews, and James E. Barrett (1984). This fourth volume in an important series on behavioral pharmacology is concerned principally with the behavioral mechanisms involved in the actions of drugs of abuse and dependence but also includes two chapters on behavioral effects of lead and other toxic substances. Thompson provides a concise yet comprehensive account of the various ways in which drugs, particularly drugs of abuse, can alter behavior. He shows how the same general behavioral principles that govern the actions of other types of drugs apply as well to drugs of abuse. Of course, the reader who is concerned with the integration of the behavioral mechanisms of drug abuse with biological bases-for example, target organ, anatomical locus, or biochemical process--will have to look elsewhere than in Thompson's chapter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)