The Turkish Association of Psychopharmacology (TAP) was founded in 2005, with the intention of bringing together those from clinical and experimental disciplines as well as members of the pharmaceutical industry involved in the study of psychopharmacology, and to advance scientific understanding of and to facilitate communication about disorders of the brain and behavior in order to advance their prevention and treatment. The principal function of the TAP is to further research and education in neuropsychopharmacology and related fields by: promoting the interaction of a broad range of scientific disciplines of brain and behavior in order to advance the understanding of prevention and treatment of diseases of the nervous system including psychiatric, neurological, behavioral and addictive disorders, encouraging scientists to enter research careers in fields related to these disorders and their treatment, and ensuring the dissemination of relevant scientific advances in these disorders.

The Association arranges scientific meetings, fosters research and teaching, encourages publication of results of research and provides guidance and information to the public on matters relevant to psychopharmacology. The TAP organizes scientific meetings and symposia during the course of the year, covering all aspects of psychopharmacology from basic research to pharmaceutical development and clinical application. The Association is planning to begin to produce a range of consensus statements on the treatment of clinical disorders. The TAP is planning to launch a program for Continuing Professional Development and Certificate in Clinical Psychopharmacology, which will be related to Anxiety Disorders, Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders, Substance Misuse, Drug Treatments in Old Age Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.

Psychopharmacology is the single most effective treatment modality in psychiatry. It is vital we use drugs to their optimal effect - matching our choices and regimes to the needs and symptoms of patients whilst minimizing side effects and avoiding adverse interactions with other drugs. New, often better drugs and new ways of using old ones appear by the month. With ever increasing demands on our professional time it is difficult to keep up to date.

The TAP supports the use of animals in biomedical research in Turkey, which is essential and unavoidable, and the continuing, thorough scrutiny of this research. The TAP supports the effort to find new ways of treating debilitating (sometimes life-threatening) psychiatric disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and dementia. Members of the TAP are dedicated to ensuring best practice in psychiatry and acknowledge that this requires the evaluation of existing medicines as well as the discovery and developments of new ones. Psychopharmacology research recruits a wide range of techniques including those using isolated cells and tissues, as well as experiments on humans. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to understand how drugs affect whole animal physiology and behavior. Research using animals has made, and continues to make, a vital contribution to this process

We hope that this Website will be the most complete and state-of-the-art site for information in the field of neuropsychopharmacology. Our goal is to make this site with a rich set of core scientific content, access to our journal and others, with incorporation of search engines to facilitate retrieval of targeted information, and links to other sites of interest and importance. Because of the flexibility of the internet, this site will be constantly evolving; feedback about what you find useful or not, or features that you would like to see added as we continue to develop the site, is welcomed..