Research a drug that is used to treat patients with mental illness (for example, schizophrenia, depression, bipolar, or anxiety disorders). Alternatively, research a recreational or over the counter drug that has behavioral effect (for example cocaine, marijuana, or any addictive drug). You need to find 2 scholarly, primary source, peer reviewed articles from our library and 2 articles found on the internet – these could be any source including wikipedia, blogs, etc. I want you to compare the quality of these sources. You can use the worksheet below to help you write your essay.

Write a 3-4 page, double-spaced essay on the effect of this drug: does it work? how does it work, physiologically? Are there any side effects? Conclude with a critical discussion of the sources you used – did these sources of information warrant the conclusions or are you skeptical about the information? Why/Why not?

Goals: student can identify, read and criticize scholarly research on psychoactive drugs and identify problems with non-scholarly information presented from internet sources

Identify peer reviewed, scholarly research on a psychoactive drug
Be able to criticize scholarly research on psychoactive drugs
Be able to criticize non-scholarly research on psychoactive drugs

Worksheet to be filled out for all sources. Combine information from these this to help write your essay. You may not be able to answer every question from each source but that is OK. The fact that that information was omitted is important information in itself that can be included in your final analysis. You do not need to turn in the worksheets – they are simply included to guide your reading and writing process.

Name of the drug
Effects of the drug & what is the drug is used to treat
What was the duration of the trial?
What was the dosage? Was that consistent with medical standards and norms?
Was there a control group? What kind of control group (for example was it a placebo or was it a behavioral control like exercise or something else)?
What measures did researchers take to ensure the groups being compared were equivalent except for variations in the dosage? Or were the groups non-equivalent?
Were alternative explanations offered and discussed in the article?
How many participants were in the study? What were they like (age, geography, health, etc.)? Is the sample diverse enough for the claims the authors made?
Was the outcome consistent with other findings?
Looking at all 4 of your sources collectively – answer the following questions:

In your own words, how does the drug work; in other words, what are the physiological events and processes this drug initiates?
What are the possible benefits of taking this drug?
What are the possible costs of taking this drug?
What are the known side effects?
How long does it take the drug to have an effect on behavior?
How long does it take the drug to leave the system?