Drugs effects, subjective

Obviously one limitation of all this work is that the drug effects have been tested in normal animals. So far, the neurochemical changes induced by long-term drug treatment have not been tested in combination with procedures such as learned helplessness, but it cannot be assumed that they will be the same as those in normal (non-depressed) subjects. 

Rush, C., Sullivan, J. and Griffiths, R., Intravenous caffeine in stimulant drug abusers Subjective reports and physiological effects. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 273(1), 351-358, 1995. 

Are they nervous What is it like to be a soldier venturing into dangerous territory Is it possible to resist the drug effects and still be able to concentrate on the task at hand Can the volunteer subject overcome a sense of weakness in the legs ... 

The early investigators did not attempt more than minimal statistical analysis. Nor did I, during my first months on the job, when I devoted most of my attention to observing and interviewing subjects throughout the duration of the drug effects. I soon became familiar with the clinical aspects of BZ, 4ie differences associated with various routes of administration, and the comparative usefulness of available performance measures. 

Discussion An initial effort to study group behavior when different drugs were present. In a three session double-blind design, each man in rotation received a small dose of BZ, LSD or atropine and the effect on their interactions and performance of simple military tasks was observed, but not scored. It was possible to distinguish which drug each subject had received by clinical examination. This was a pilot study, intended primarily to test the feasibility of using ... 

An alternative method of assessing interoceptive drug effects is the behavioral drug discrimination procedure, which relies on observable behavioral responses to determine whether a drug s stimulus effects have been perceived by the subject (Preston 1991 Overton 1991). Behavioral drug discrimination is widely used in animal studies (Holtzman 1990 see chapter by Stolerman, this volume) because it... 

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