Drugs & Individual Behavior 400:170g  Dr. Linda L. Walsh
	Spring, 1999 11:00 T Th   Sabin 307

Course Objectives

   I consider Drugs and Individual Behavior to be a general information class useful to any student from any major. We all will encounter drugs and their effects on behavior throughout our lives. Almost all of us use drugs (over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, and social drugs). We have family members, friends, and other acquaintances who use drugs in one form or another. We read about drugs or hear about drug problems on the news. Many of you have career goals that include helping those with drug problems, educating others about the effects of drugs, or perhaps making use of therapeutic medications. And as voters we play a role in shaping government policies affecting
drug use and substance abuse prevention and treatment through our choice of candidates.
This course will help you understand the relationship between drugs, the body, and behavior and allow you to better evaluate drug use and abuse, including use by you and your loved ones. It will increase your awareness of controversies in the drugs field and enable you to make better decisions, backed by critical thinking, when you face personal or social issues concerning the use of drugs in the future.
     Some of the background material we cover applies to any type of drug (factors such as dose, route of administration, time course, side effects, etc.). Once we have laid that groundwork we will concentrate on the major categories of psychoactive drugs, including use of the drugs in the past as well as the present, common effects and side effects, risks such as overdose and dependency, abuse potential and treatment of abuse.

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"How much of this stuff will be on the exam?"

Course Requirements

     Realizing that this course draws students from many different majors and with varying commitments outside of the class, I have tried to design a flexible set of assignments that gives you some freedom of choice. A few assignments I consider important learning experiences for all students. These are labeled REQUIRED below. Other assignments may be of interest to students with particular career goals/interests or to student who prefer to have a greater percentage of their grade based on assignments and a smaller percentage of their grade depending on tests. Many students feel like they have more control over how well they do on assignments vs the uncertainty of how well they might do on exams. These assignments are labeled OPTIONAL below. Note that OPTIONAL does not mean extra credit: if you choose to do optional assignments your "points possible" increases, the relative importance of tests decreases. In the end your grade will be based on the percent age of points you earned. Our 4 exams will be worth about 125 each or 500 points total. The remaining will come from the assignments below. Please note that late submissions will lose points.

REQUIRED Due 1/28. 10 pts Come to class with organized notes on the Caffeine chapter. Use those notes to compete in Caffeine Jeopardy and earn extra credit points. Only those who turn in good notes that day can earn Jeopardy points!

REQUIRED Due 2/11. 75 pts Using Drug Info Resources: I believe that everyone should know how to find information on the medications they or their loved ones are taking. Today's physicians rarely take the time to fully inform patients about their meds and often don't ask what other drugs are being used. I think its important to take an active role in monitoring your health care - even if it means wading thru some medical jargon. For this assignment you must find key information on prescription drug of your choice, using the Physician's Desk Reference and at least 1other general drug reference. A handout will be provided.

REQUIRED Due 2/23. 10 pts Come to class with organized notes on the alcoholism chapter. Use those notes to compete in Alcohol Abuse Jeopardy and earn extra credit points. Only those who turn in good notes that day can earn Jeopardy points!

REQUIRED Due 3/25. 35 pts Decoding an OTC package: You don't have to see a physician to use OTC drugs. We should be able to make sense of the information provided (by law) on OTC packaging and should recognize what, on the package, is promotional advertising. Each student will be given an OTC package to analyze. A handout will be provided.

REQUIRED Due 4/8. 50 pts Critical evaluation of a OTC drug commercial or ad. Videotape a drug commercial or xerox drug ad from a magazine. If possible find an ad for one of the OTC analgesics or cold or allergy medications discussed in class. Using class information and drug references evaluate everything that is said, everything that seems to be suggested, the way the drug is portrayed or referred to, sale pitch, and the accuracy, honesty & completeness of the info presented. Is the manufacturer being totally straight forward with the consumer? Or does the ad mislead consumers with what it says, implies, or what it fails to say? If you wrote or spoke to the manufacturer would you praise or "tsk tsk" their advertising? A handout will be provided.

Grad students will, in addition, be asked to prepare a review of current research on a narrowly defined drugs topic (125 pts; handout will be provided).

Optional Assignment. Participate in a 2 day Addiction Simulation and 3/13/97 prepare an hourly log and a 1- 2 page of discussion of the experience. Be sure to include discussion of how it felt to have something influencing you schedule (making hourly log entries is our substitute annoyance to take the place of hourly cravings/withdrawal symptoms)? How did you deal with having something to hide - something you had to lie about (your bracelet is a substitute for the needle tracks or crack pipe that must be concealed)? How about the planning necessary to have access to and discretely use ICECUBE? What effect did the simulation have on your activities, your interactions with others during those 2 days? (see end of studyguide for more details) 50 pt

Optional Assignment. Prepare an original electronic presentation of recent (1990's) drug information (from professional journal articles or books) to "teach" others about some drug related topic of interest to you. This could be a series of electronic "slides" of lecture material using a program like Powerpoint (similar to many of our class lectures) supported by references or create a drug topic-related page to be shared on the world-wide web. Ask for further information. May be done anytime during the semester but submitted no later than 4/24. Purpose: Delving into some recent research on a drug topic takes you beyond the "pre-digested" information in our text to what's going on right now in the Drugs field. Organizing material to present to others - especially when you are trying to teach your audience - can be the best way to learn the material yourself. Making presentation materials that you are proud of can be beneficial outside of our course as well - you can use your materials (on disk or on the web) as a sample of your work. And just being able to list use of presentation software like Powerpoint or "publishing" on the web on your resume or grad application can also be a plus. 50 pt

Optional Assignment. Arrange to go out into the community (Waterloo-CedarFalls or your hometown area) and interview an individual or individuals who are currently working living in areas affected by drug-use (police, substance abuse counselors, school counselors, health care providers, individuals using psychotherapeutic drugs and their families, court officials are some that come to mind). Plan for your interview carefully, doing some reading to help prepare a good list of questions. Prepare a report on the individual(s), the setting and the interview responses. If you feel you and your interviewee are up to it, a videotape of your "investigative report" could be an alternative. Due by 4/23. 50 pt

Do you have an idea of another type of Optional Assignment that would allow you to learn about a Drugs topic (and demonstrate that learning in a novel way) that would better fit your career goals and talents? Come see me!

10 pt Extra Credit. Keep a blank videotape handy to record any shows, segments, or news reports on the drugs/drug issues we cover in this class. Turn the tape in to me with a summary of the program, why you think it's relevant to the class, and a critical evaluation of the segment using an evaluation handout.(tape will be returned). May be done once for credit.
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Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
Education: B.S. (Psychology) University of Illinois, Chicago;
                  M.A. (Biopsychology) University of Chicago;
                  Ph.D. (Biopsychology) University of Chicago
Married:  James Walsh (attorney)
Children:  3 girls (Jennifer (16), Sara (13), & Annie (9))
Hobbies:  Gardening, gourmet cooking, travel, volleyball, reading
Most unusual experiences: Performing brain surgery on rats, riding an elephant (twice!),
                 climbing the Great Pyramid, wearing a live python around my neck, flying in a
                 blimp, visiting ancient Greek ruins, giving birth
Goals: Continue to learn for the rest of my life, enjoy my professional and private lives, help
                others discover psychology (especially biopsychology)

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This page was prepared by Linda Walsh, Dept. of Psychology,
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0505.
Last updated 1/11/99.