Psychopharmacology - help a brotha out!

[Milkshakes]

Alrighty, so for some time now I have fancied (read 'salivated over') becoming a pharmacologist. After some discussion with a few outside sources I've narrowed it down to Neuropsychopharmacology. Does anyone here have any experience in the field? Anyone have any good advice? Everyone I've talked to seems somewhat reluctant to divulge any pertinent information regarding the field itself. I've been studiously reading my 5th ed. Foye's Medicinal Chemistry (I have one pre-req. before I can actually start on my chem courses) , I have a subscription to the the British Assoc. of Psychopharmacology's Journal, and am majoring in chem at the moment in school.

 

[samb834]

Aye, I'm a psychopharmacologist. Chemistry would be a help but from my experiance you really need to be familiar with the biology.

It all depends on what field of psychopharmacology you're interested in but from my point of view it helped to be familiar with the neurotransmitters and brain regions involved in specific cognitive domains and how particular drugs of interest interacted with cognition.

What aspect of psychopharmacolgy are you interested in?

This may be of some use to you...

 

[Milkshakes]

Honestly I admire the work of David Nichols and Alexander Shulgin and would like to follow in their footsteps. I have come to realize this is a ridiculous goal, regardless I would like to pursue it to the fullest extent that I can. I love biology, psychology and chemistry. I have a decent understanding of how neurotransmitters function and how most drugs interact with them but other than that I'd have to say biology is my weakness.

 

[rant*N*rave]

Work hard and get really good grades so you can get into grad school. I'd recommend switching to biochemistry and then taking as many neurology/neurobiology/etc classes that you can get your hands on. It would probably help to take some psychology too.