Behavioral problems - which drugs to use? or not?

I went to a really great lecture (by Eric Hutchinson)  a week or so ago, and as a result today we are back to the topic of treating behavioral problems... using, as he describes it, a mechanistic approach.  So here are some questions for your perusal...

1. What are some common abnormal behaviors in NHP? 
2. If a basic behavior loop is stimulus -> internal processing -> behavior -> feedback, which of those steps can most be influenced by veterinary medicine alone (i.e. without behavioral management techniques)? Which can be influenced by behavioral management? 
3. Barbering or hair pulling is a relatively common behavior in multiple species, including humans. 
•     What is thought to be the primary physiologic mechanism, 
•     What is the usual treatment, and 
•     Why does it have a wide safety margin?
4.    Benzodiazepines are sometimes suggested for treatment for behavioral problems 
• How do benzodiazepines work in the brain? 
• True or false: benzodiazepines are useful for a wide range of problem behaviors 
• For what kind of conditions would they be appropriate to use? 
• When should they never be used? 

      5. Self-injurious behavior

1. What conditions of rearing predispose an animal to develop self-injurious behavior?
2. What is thought to be the neurochemical deficit in self-injurious behavior?
•  Which amino acid has proven useful in treating abnormal behaviors due to abnormal rearing? 
• What category of drugs with a similar downstream mechanism to Q3 effects is often useful for self injurious behavior? 
• Which member of this drug category takes up to a month to work, has off-target effects and has withdrawal effects? 
• Which member of this drug category is not useful >8 weeks but has no withdrawal effects? 
3. Which alpha 2A adrenergic agonist has proven useful in the most severe cases of self injurious behavior in NHP? 
• What are some advantages of this drug? 
• What are some disadvantages? 
4. Which drug could you use occasionally prior to a known trigger for self injurious behavior to help prevent it? 

      6. General concept: What effect on behavior would you expect on withdrawing drug treatment therapy?
ANSWERS POSTED HERE

Some references:

Risk factors for stereotypic behavior and self-biting

Physiology and neurochemistry of self injurious behavior

CRISPR Cas9 for Dummies

From Synthego

I have to admit that the ongoing revolution in gene editing can be more than a bit confusing -first there were transgenics, then targeted mutations, conditional mutations, zinc fingers and TALENs ...   Most recently we have CRISPR Cas9.   Because it looks like this method really is the holy grail of gene editing, it's time for a few basics (even for those of us clinicians who qualified when gene editing wasn't even a gleam in some researcher's eye).



1. In what categories of organism was the CRISPR Cas9 system discovered?
2. What was its "native" purpose?
3. What does CRISPR Cas9 stand for?
4. If we say that transgenic mice are created by inserting genetic material into the male pronucleus of the oocyte by microinjection,  and gene-targeted (knockout) mice are created by inserting genetically modified ES cells into the blastocyst by microinjection, how are CRISPR Cas9 mice created?
5. True/False: CRISPR Cas9 has been used to make genetic modifications in plants, multiple animal species and human genetic material.
6. From which organism is the most commonly-used type of Cas9?
7. What 2 functional components constitute the CRISPR Cas9 system?
8. True of false. The CRISPR Cas9 system relies upon the host cell-repair system to function.
9. True or false: CRISPR Cas9 can be used to knock out genes, to knock in genes and to study the genome wide function of genes and non-genomic DNA through interference.
10. True or false: to date CRISPR Cas9 improves upon existing methods for gene modification in all areas.


ANSWERS POSTED HERE