SCSK 539 Psychotropic Drugs and Drug Demand Reduction

Dirk Burkhardt, MD

Students receive a primarily didactic orientation to drugs and are required to prepare and present educational sessions to secondary school students in Grenada. Phase One is composed of four three-hour lectures given on four consecutive Saturdays from 9 am to 12 noon. The content of this selective will cover the different types and families of psychotropic drugs, highlighting how they are administered or taken, their acute and protracted effects, including their neurobiological actions, their addictive potential, their lethal potential, their psychosocial consequences, and treatment and prevention implications.

Phase Two requires students to prepare and present four 30–45 minute presentations to high school students on a schedule that the course directors will arrange to be convenient to both the students and the schools. Following the participation in the didactic sessions of Phase One, students will have to prepare four PowerPoint presentations for high school students on some aspect   of the topics taught. If the necessary permissions from  the Ministry of Education cannot be achieved in time, the presentation will be held for the class. The presentations may be limited to one drug or category of drugs, or be even more comprehensive, depending on each student’s preference. They may focus on some particular aspect of the drug(s) such as effects, lethality, addictive potential, etc. The particular message selected will be the choice of each student, who will be expected to deliver four such presentations to classes of students on different occasions. As noted, the schedule and venue of these sessions will be arranged by the course directors.