Human Behavioral Pharmacology

Abstract

Behavioral pharmacology is a scientific discipline that integrates the principles of behavior analysis and general pharmacology. The origins of this discipline can be traced directly to studies conducted by B. F. Skinner and colleagues during the 1930s using schedules of reinforcement to examine the behavioral effects of drugs (Skinner & Heron, 1937). However, application of Skinner’s operant methods to the study of the behavioral effects of drugs did not get under way in any systematic manner until the mid-1950s (see Dews & Morse, 1961). The use of operant methods was well established in numerous laboratories in the United States by that time. The discovery of chlorpromazine and other agents for the treatment of psychiatric disorders during this same period spurred a genuine interest on the part of the pharmaceutical industry in the utilization of operant methods in drug-discovery programs. Operant methods proved quite effective in meeting the challenges presented by the pharmaceutical industry and this new area of scientific inquiry and the discipline of behavioral pharmacology was launched.