Test Bank

Chapter 3: Drugs and the nervous system: Psychopharmacology

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following routes of administration is most likely to get a drug into the brain fastest?

a. intramuscular injection

b. sublingual

c. smoking

d. subcutaneous injection

2. Tolerance to the effects of a psychoactive drug may be mediated by ______.

a. an increase in the number of receptors to which the drug binds

b. increased affinity of the drug for the receptors to which it binds

c. an increase in the amount of neurotransmitter released by the target neuron

d. an increase the production of metabolic enzymes responsible for biotransformation

3. An indirect agonist is a drug that ______.

a. is always less potent than an direct agonist

b. elicits a similar physiological response to that of a neurotransmitter

c. will usually have depressant effects

d. all of these

4. Drug efficacy is a measure of the extent to which a drug ______.

a. binds to its target receptors

b. stimulates its target receptors

c. produces side effects

d. down-regulates its target receptors

5. Which of the following routes of drug administration is associated with the effect called ‘first pass metabolism’?

a. intravenous injection

b. oral ingestion

c. inhalation

d. difficult to generalise: it depends on the drug

6. A ligand binding at one part of a receptor can alter the effects of a neurotransmitter binding at a separate site on the same receptor complex. This process is often called ______.

a. inverse agonism

b. allosteric modulation

c. receptor upregulation

d. presynaptic potentiation

7. Equivalent amounts of alcohol will have a greater effect in women compared with men because men have ______.

a. lower levels of alcohol dehydrogenase in their stomach

b. more permeable blood vessels

c. greater blood volume

d. less gastric surface area than women

8. Which of the following is a short-term effect of alcohol use?

a. aphrodisiac

b. Korsakoff’s syndrome

c. delirium tremens

d. disinhibition

9. Caffeine acts to ______.

a. block adenosine receptors

b. stimulate adenosine receptors

c. block noradrenaline receptors

d. block acetylcholine receptors

10. Nicotine does NOT ______.

a. block cholinergic receptors

b. stimulate the release of acetylcholine

c. stimulate the release of dopamine

d. stimulate the release of serotonin

11. Which of the following is a neurophysiological effect of dextro-amphetamine?

a. It binds to and stimulates postsynaptic histamine receptors.

b. It blocks the reuptake of dopamine.

c. It reduces the release of dopamine and noradrenaline.

d. all of these

12. Which of the following drugs primarily bring about their effects via agonist action at 5-HT2A receptors?

a. mescaline

b. cocaine

c. nicotine

d. caffeine

13. The psychoactive properties of heroin are likely mediated by which of the following actions?

a. antagonist action at mu receptors

b. antagonist action at kappa receptors

c. agonist action at mu receptors

d. agonist action at kappa receptors

14. The psychoactive constituent of the drug cannabis probably acts at the same cell-surface receptors as ______.

a. adenosine

b. anandamide

c. adenylate cyclase

d. arachidonic cannabinol

15. Cannabis has been claimed to have therapeutic benefits for which of the following conditions?

a. glaucoma

b. muscle spasticity

c. wasting associated with AIDS

d. all of these

16. Which of the following sets of drugs have hallucinogenic effects?

a. heroin, fentanyl, LSD

b. mescaline, ketamine, cannabis

c. LSD, cannabis, alcohol

d. morphine, psilocybin, codeine

17. Which of the following is NOT associated with the use of amphetamines?

a. psychosis

b. increased appetite

c. depression during withdrawal

d. rapid heartbeat

18. Naloxone would be effective at reversing the effects of ______.

a. dextro-amphetamine

b. LSD

c. morphine

d. both LSD and morphine

19. You suspect someone of having taken a psychoactive drug. You test them and find that they show fast reaction times to stimuli. They are most likely to have taken ______.

a. valium

b. caffeine

c. heroin

d. alcohol

20. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is ______.

a. very addictive

b. very toxic

c. particularly dangerous in combination with cocaine

d. very potent

Short Answer Questions

1. Nicotine replacement therapies include nicotine gum and nicotine patches. In terms of their routes of administration what are the advantages and disadvantages of each product?

2. Describe, with examples, how pharmacokinetic factors can alter the effects of drugs.

3. You give the same dose of a drug to two people and find that they respond very differently to it. Explain why this difference may have occurred.

4. Cocaine, caffeine and the amphetamines are sometimes classified as ‘stimulant’ drugs. By comparing the effects of these drugs, evaluate the appropriateness of classifying them together.

5. Compare and contrast heroin with cocaine in terms of their mechanisms of action, their physiological and psychological effects.