The Division for Behavioral Pharmacology (BEH) serves members interested
in research on the behavioral effects of drugs. These investigations
focus on how drugs alter behavior and encompass perspectives that range
from descriptive to mechanistic. Behavioral pharmacologists examine
drugs with an emphasis on effects in the whole organism and with an
appreciation of the considerable influence of environmental variables on
drug action. Areas of interest include, (but are not limited to):
effects of drugs on conditioned or unconditioned behavior, application
of receptor theory to behavioral pharmacology, pharmacological aspects
of drug abuse, use of animal models to aid in the discovery and
development of new pharmacological agents to treat neurological or
psychiatric disorders, drug interactions, the effects of repeated or
chronic exposure to drugs, and the use of pharmacological tools in the
analysis of behavior.