I thoroughly enjoyed Izquierdo's pharmacology course 119A. I have since graduated from UCLA and found that this class is quite relevant to my job researching intellectual disabilities at the UC Davis MIND Institute. This course provided a foundation of knowledge that allowed me to understand the mechanism of action of the investigational product (IP), or study drug, used in UC Davis clinical trials for fragile X syndrome and pediatric bipolar disorder. Additionally I was able to have informed discussions about Parkinson's medication with a neurologist that I shadowed.

Another helpful part of the class was the exercise of reviewing scientific literature. Izquierdo selected interesting papers which discussed the use of various psychotropics such as methylphenidate or tetrahydrocannabinol. She picked apart each paper in lecture and explained her thinking about the results and research methods. This course helped me understand neurobiological changes in the brain's reward pathways following chronic substance abuse.

The midterm and final were challenging but fair because Izquierdo gave the class a study guide beforehand with all the potential short answer and essay questions. There were plenty of choices for the term paper prompt, so I was able to choose a topic that interested me. Overall the workload was very reasonable. I would recommend this class to anyone who is interested in pharmacology or biomedical research.

I took this course my senior year and I think it was one of my favorites in my undergraduate career. The course had a good storyline which made the sequence of topics easy to follow. Professor Izquierdo is very articulate and it makes a lot of confusing topics from the past comprehensible. She also gives good outlines of test material so you have an oriented way to study. I this this class had a good level of accessibility to neuro, psychobio, and psych majors.

I'm very happy I took this course. It has given me a much more holistic view of psychology and a great introduction to pharmacology. Professor Izquierdo has an impressive knowledge and teaches her stuff in a way that makes this difficult subject easier to understand. Being more use to psychology from a social science perspective this course is def. not easy but totally worth the work. I would highly recommend the course to students, especially the ones interesting in Psychiatry/Clinical Psychology/treatment/pathology.

The reviews on Bruin Walk are not consistent in my opinion.
I am a senior with a 3.6 GPA, 4.0 GPA in my major. This class has a very heavy work load. Your grade is basically 50% paper and 50% final. the final is all write out. the paper wasn't too bad. but you have literally 15 lectures worth of brain regions and neurotransmitters to memorize for the final. and its all write out. and she goes through her slides so quickly with so many details that are not in her lecture slides. She always goes over time. She rushes when she realizes she's running out of time. She's generous in that she gives you a study guide, but not all of her questions are from the study guide.
Its a lot of material, and not necessarily material that you have learned or heard of before (unless youre like a pharmacy tech).
Nonetheless, its still a very interesting class. She wants you to learn. She's always welcoming in office hours. but you really have to work for your grade

I took this course as an upper division elective for psychobiology and it was one of my favorite classes at UCLA. The course is not necessarily an easy A but if you go to class and take decent notes it is definitely doable. I was a senior when I took this class and in comparison to my pre-med requirements like the chemistry and physics series, this class was not bad at all.

Your grade is determined by a 50% exam and 50% research paper. Since you are only graded on these 2 assignments, you have to keep up with the course material. The exam was fair. She actually provided us with a study guide that contained a good amount of the questions that were on the exam. Since all the questions were free-response, it was helpful to focus on understanding the big-picture concepts rather than memorizing the details of every slide. She explicitly stated specific details that we had to know so there weren't any curve balls. As for the paper, you are allowed to write about practically any topic you are interested in as long as you follow the basic guidelines. I thought her grading was relatively generous overall.

I had professor Izquierdo for Psych 119A and for a module in Psych 116. She was very passionate and knowledgeable about the course material. She tried her best to simplify and explain complicated topics. She always asked the class questions which allowed me to engage with and retain the course material. She was very approachable and her office hours were perfect times to clarify any topics we were unclear of. You could tell she wanted her students to succeed and even offered extra credit in the final exam for attending seminars relevant to the course.

Overall, this was a very interesting course with a great professor. I highly recommend this class to anyone interested in the treatment of psychological/neurological disorders.