Psychopharmacology of Animal Behaviour Disorders

Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman is a professor and Head of the Section of Veterinary Medicine. He is also a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behavior (DACVB). He is author of two recent books, The Dog Who Loved Too Much: Tails, Treatment and Psychology of Dogs (Bantam) and The Cat Who Cried For Help: Attitudes, Emotions and the Psychology of Cats (Bantam). Dr. Louis Shuster is a professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine as well as a faculty member on the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine.

Steps toward a comparative clinical psychopharmacology; neurochemical bases of aggression; pharmacologic treatment of aggression in veterinary patients; systemic causes of aggression and their treatment; fear and anxiety - mechanisms, models and molecules; pharmacologic treatment of situational fear and anxiety in animals; pharmacology of acquired fears and phobias; basic mechanisms of compulsive and self-injurious behaviour; stereotypic behaviour - the pharmacologic treatment of compulsive disorder; self-injurious behaviour (SIB) and its role in obsessive-compulsive disorder in domestic animals; progestins - indications for male-typical problem behaviours; pharmacological approaches to urine marking in cats; geriatric behaviour problems; canine cognitive dysfunction - understanding the syndrome and treatment with L-deprenyl; evaluation of clinical traits in behavioural pharmacology.