Pharmacological treatment in behavioural medicine: The importance ofneurochemistry, molecular biology and mechanistic hypotheses [Review]

摘要

Psychopharmacology has become a popular, and sometimes mandatory addition to treatment regimes for canine and feline patients with behavioural problems; however, clients and practitioners should be dissuaded that behavioural drugs are 'quick fixes'. Veterinarians should only prescribe psychotropic medication when they have a specific idea of how the mechanism of action of the drug will affect the target behaviours associated with a specific diagnosis. The diagnosis must be treated rather than non-specific signs. Newer psychotropic medications demonstrate the extent to which truly abnormal behaviours are dysfunctions of neurochemistry; synaptic or cellular metabolism; or genetic encoding and 'learning', or LTP, hence there is a clear role for the interaction of neuropharmacology and behavioural and environmental modification.