Drugs and the Brain

3 credits · Undergraduate

Psychoactive drugs — stimulants, sedatives, psychedelics, analgesics, antidepressant and antipsychotic pharmaceuticals, and others — powerfully impact the human mind and brain. Understanding these substances and their effects is a truly transdisciplinary endeavor: anthropology, botany, cell biology, chemistry, clinical medicine, physiology, psychology, public policy, sociology, governmental law, and more. This class explores that territory, emphasizing the complex nature of drugs as both medicines and poisons, and emanating from plants and fungi having deep historical relationships with humankind.