Drugs and the Brain
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Exam Solutions; Exams; Instructor Insights; Lecture Notes
- Before you start: There are no prerequisites for this course.
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Spring 2013
- Department: Experimental Study Group
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How drugs act in the brain: neurotransmitters, drug mechanisms, addiction, anxiety and psychosis, taught through slides, handouts and short quizzes.
Why is injected heroin more addictive than snorted heroin, and why does amphetamine help with ADHD? This seminar answers questions like these by teaching how drugs act in the brain and why that matters for addiction, depression and schizophrenia. Basic concepts are mixed with specific examples and short tangents into patent law, medical ethics, history and physics.
What You Will Achieve
- Name key neurotransmitters and their roles in the brain
- Explain how drugs raise or block synthesis, release, reuptake and receptors
- Read dose-response curves and basic pharmacokinetics
- Relate drug mechanisms to addiction, anxiety and psychosis
Program Overview
How Drugs Work
The mechanisms behind everything else.
- Neurotransmitters, with caffeine as a first example
- Antidepressant mechanisms
- Pharmacokinetics
- Dose-response curves
Addiction and Alcohol
Reward, wanting and the action of alcohol.
- Dopamine, liking and wanting
- Action potentials and shock therapies
- Alcohol antagonists
Brain Disease and Other Drugs
Conditions and drug classes in turn.
- Anxiety and sedatives
- Psychosis, antipsychotics and Parkinson’s disease
- Recreational drugs and a neurotransmitter chart
- Appetite and nausea
Course Completion
Job Outlook
This knowledge supports later study in psychology, neuroscience and medicine, and suits anyone preparing for a health career.
Good for: Curious science students and future medical students who want a lively, example-led first look at how drugs affect the brain.
Keep in mind: The published material is lecture slides and quizzes with no lecture recordings, and it was a short pass/fail seminar from 2013, so drug and treatment details may have moved on.
Bottom line: A short, engaging introduction to pharmacology, built on memorable examples.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the class taught?
Twelve two-hour sessions of lecture with questions and discussion, plus occasional short quizzes. Readings were optional, and assignments were brief and occasional.
What exams are published?
Two short quizzes, on antidepressant mechanisms and a drug chart, are listed with an answer key for the chart quiz.
What were the Drug Movie Nights?
Optional evenings when the class watched a drug-related film, then talked about the pharmacology that came up in it, such as how long-term injecting damages veins.
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