Methodological Issues in Psychopharmacology

정신약리학(精神藥理學)의 연구방법(硏究方法)의 제문제(諸問題)

It is the purpose of this article to present a brief and systematical behavioral methods in recent developed behavioral pharmacology. Specifically, the present review has been organized around three major topics reflecting both current research emphasis in behavioral pharmacology and methodological applications to the study of psychopharmacological actions of crude drug or herb medicine. The first major topic focuses upon the appropriate experimental design especially in the study of psychopharmacology. A large number of factors should be controlled to have a bearing on design of studies reflecting to psychological effects of drugs. The second section presents several recent methodological developments in behavioral pharmacology involving Turner's screening methods and several types of conditioning techniques. The last section calls specific attention to the observation of behavioral development processes in relation to the activity of pharmacological agents and emphasizes critical period of drug treatment.