Preclinical Pharmacodynamics of Central Nervous System Active Agents

In preclinical drug development power spectral analysis of drug induced changes in the electroencephalogram (EEG) is often used to characterize the pharmacological properties of new psychotropic drugs. In this chapter a new approach is proposed for this type of investigations, which allows additional quantitative pharmacodynamic information (i.e. potency, intrinsic efficacy, rate of biophase equilibration) to be derived.