1. A previously healthy 22 year old suddenly disrupts classes and clearly starts hallucinating. She could be suffering from schizophrenia, or mania, or substance abuse - among other diagnoses. How might a trained professional distinguish among these possibilities? What drug treatments are available, and what neurochemical mechanisms probably underlie their actions?
2. A previously healthy 24 year old student begins exhibiting mood swings that alternate between great sadness and great anger. He also sometimes appears to be unconnected to his environment. Might he have temporal lobe epilepsy? How might a trained professional decide? What drug treatments are available, and what neurochemical mechanisms probably underlie their actions?
3. Describe panic attacks, and consider the brain mechanisms that might underlie them. What drug treatments are available, and what neurochemical mechanisms probably underlie their actions?
4. Is post-traumatic stress disorder a neurologic or psychiatric disease (or perhaps neither)? What drug treatments are available, and what neurochemical mechanisms probably underlie their actions?
5. Describe bipolar depression, and the theories that underlie its present treatment.
6. How might a trained professional differentiate sadness related to environmental events from early signs on major depressive disorders? And how would he/she probably treat these conditions?
7. How might one differentiate early Alzheimer's Disease from other neurologic and psychiatric diseases that can also produce dementia in older people (e.g., depression, dementia pugilistica, vascular dementia, HIV dementia)? What drug treatments are available, and what neurochemical mechanisms probably underlie their actions?
8. What is the involvement of amyloid in the course and symptoms of Downs' Syndrome?
9. Is Attention Deficit Disorder - Hyperactivity - a real entity in children? In adults? What drug treatments are available, and what neurochemical mechanisms probably underlie their actions?
10. Describe the neurochemical and behavioral processes that are thought to underlie the development of alcoholic dementia.
11. Is Ecstasy really neurotoxic?
12. Contrast the signs of cocaine withdrawal and opiate withdrawal, and the probable mechanisms involved.
13. Describe and contrast the currently available drug delivery methods and the mechanisms underlying the scope of their application.
14. Consider the role of acetylcholine in learning and memory formation and relate it to the deficits observed in Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease.
15. Describe the mechanism of glutamatergic neurotoxicity in post-stroke patients and propose a target for its pharmacological control.
16. Characterize the role of GABAergic neurotransmission in epilepsy and propose a pharmacological means for its treatment.