Pharmacological Aspects of Alcohol and Other Drugs

This course provides students with a basic level of understanding of addiction from a historical, cultural, psychological and neurobiological perspective. This course examines alcohol and other drug dependencies through a multidisciplinary approach with lectures, discussions, film, exercises and readings. To understand its complicated nature as a disease, the course focuses on different substances of abuse and the current genetic and environmental research in the development of substance use disorders. Specific topics to be covered include the biological, developmental, psychological, environmental and social factors that lead to vulnerability to addictions; symptoms of addictive disorders; prevalence across the life span among target populations, including adolescents, seniors, families and those with trauma exposure; and various treatment approaches, including both behavioral and medication-assisted intervention strategies.