The Joys of Physiological Psychology

In physiological psychology, you get to learn EXACTLY how all the mechanisms of the brain work. This does this, this inhibits that, etc., etc.

Here's one lovely example:

Let's say Billy was an opioid addict. Billy is really craving that "high" feeling, but he's in prison now because he's a loser. If Billy had taken physiological psychology, Billy would know that all he has to do is say that he has diarrhea and acid-reflux disease, and ask for the corresponding medications for those conditions. Billy would know that the primary ingredient of most anti-diarrheal ("imodium") medicines is loperamide. Loperamide is an opioid receptor agonist, however it normally only works within your bowels (yes, your intestines have opioid receptors), and typically does not cross the blood-brain barrier and get into the central nervous system (which it would have to do to get Billy "high"). That's why Billy is also claiming he has acid-reflux. For, you see, omeprazole (or "Prilosec OTC") is a proton pump inhibitor. This means, among other things, that it will allow the loperamide to cross his blood-brain barrier, and tickle his happy little CNS opioid receptors.

And there you have a strange case of how anti-diarrheal and acid-reflux medications taken concurrently can result in opioid CNS agonism.

So next time you take your medicines, make sure you look at the label and read the contraindications! You never know if what you're taking might interact with something else in a (potentially) lethal way.