This course deals with transdisciplinary issues pertinent to the understanding and treatment of drug addiction. Topics include: historic origins of drugs; manufacture, global distribution and black market economics; epidemiology of population uptake; biomedical harms; neuropharmacological actions; effects on learning, motivation, cognition and behaviour; psychiatric comorbidity; individual differences in vulnerability; brain mechanisms of reward and impaired cognitive control; treatment by behavioural interventions and pharmacotherapy ; prevention by education; prohibition by criminal justice; and the role of scientific evidence in government policy. The course will provide a broad understanding of drug use and the systems in place to counteract it.

Note: this course is taught entirely online using the e-learning Moodle site.