**Chapter 6 125**

Neuropharmacology of Anxiety Disorders at Young Age: A Perspective from Preclinical Research *by Gabriel Guillén-Ruiz, Blandina Bernal-Morales, César Soria-Fregozo, Emma Virginia Herrera-Huerta, Ana Karen Limón-Vázquez, Margarita Hernández-Mixteco and Abraham Puga-Olguín*

### **Chapter 7 141**

Comprehensive Attention with a Harm Reduction Perspective for Psychoactive Substances Consumers in a Third Level Hospital *by María Angélica Ocampo, César Guillermo Popoca, Abraham Sánchez, Catalina Casillas and Raúl Cicero*

Preface

Behavioral Pharmacology is a multidisciplinary science of the neurosciences. The principal focus is based on the study of the biological bases of drugs that influence the normal or altered behavior. This science explores the link between physiological and neurobiological processes with those drugs, hormones, and natural compounds impacting on behavior. This science studies the biological effects of drugs through behavioral analysis, which is mostly supported by chemical or physiological correlations that explain the expression of a specific behavior. Research in this area has substantially contributed to the understanding of neurobiology and neuropharmacology of psychiatric disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, as well as eating and sleeping disorders, and addictions to drugs, among others. Nowadays, research into pharmacology has grown beyond treatments for infectious agents, and into areas covering the neurobiological bases of diseases related to alterations of the central nervous system. Derived from those studies, we now dispose of pharmacological therapies to treat several disorders such as depression, anxiety, chronic pain, attention deficit, psychomotor hyperactivity, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease; but also, further studies are in processes to develop efficacious medicines to ameliorate Alzheimer's disease. One of the most important current health problems is related to the addictive behaviors triggered by the consumption

of certain substances and the side effects of these addictions, including the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and refined sugars, that impact negatively on quality of life. The current technological development has a significant impact on mental health for example the Internet and smartphone addiction. All these highlight the continuous development of behavioral pharmacology in order to cope with the current challenges to prevent the deterioration of mental health. Behavioral Pharmacology has contributed to development of techniques focused on screening the effects of pharmacological agents on specific behaviors under controlled environments; which allows scientists to work with validated models using the analysis of specific behaviors (i.e., exploration, ambulation, rearing or grooming, among others) or a group of them to identify, for example, the sexual behavior (i.e., number of mounts, latency and number of ejaculations, among others). All of these behaviors are normally studied in experimental subjects under controlled environments designed specifically for the required behavioral display, in which the effects of new chemical agents with potential therapeutic applications are evaluated and contrasted with clinical effective drugs. In summary, the development of behavioral pharmacology permits the study of the biological bases of behavior and the pharmacological action of several substances through the behavioral analysis, contributing to the discovery of substances to maintain an adequate quality of life. Taken together, through behavioral pharmacology it is possible to generate knowledge about pharmacological bases that influence the normal or altered behavior with a multidisciplinary point of view that includes diverse areas of science. So, the purpose of this book "Behavioral Pharmacology - From Basic to Clinical Research" is to show the advances in the identification of pharmacological properties of natural and synthetic molecules that could be used
