Neurotransmitters | Functions | Implications in mental illness |
Acetylcholine | Sleep, arousal, pain perception, motor control, learning, and memory | Motor and memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease |
Norepinephrine | Regulation of mood, cognition, perception, attention, vigilance, memory, cardiovascular functioning, and sleep-wake cycles | Mood disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, and mania |
Dopamine | Regulation of movements and coordination, emotions, reward signals, learning, voluntary decision-making ability, and inhibits release of prolactin | High levels = mania and schizophrenia Low levels = Parkinson’s disease and depression |
Serotonin | Sleep-wake cycle, sexual behavior, appetite, anxiety, aggression, and pain perception | Depression and schizophrenia |
Histamine | Circadian rhythms, psychomotor activity, learning, cognition, appetite, and eating disorders | Epilepsy, depression, psychosis, stroke, anxiety, neuroinflammatory process, and neurodegeneration |
Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid | Prevent postsynaptic excitation, interrupting the progression of the electrical impulse at the synaptic junction | Alterations may lead to anxiety disorders, movement disorders, and epilepsy |
Glycine | Regulation of spinal and brainstem reflexes | Glycine encephalopathy |
Glutamate and Aspartate | Relay of sensory information and in the regulation of various motor and spinal reflexes | Huntington’s disease, temporal lobe epilepsy, and spinal cerebellar degeneration. |
- Neuroendocrinology is the study of the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system, and the effects of various hormones on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning.
- Studies have been conducted to determine genetic and environmental contributions to psychiatric disorders.
- Possible genetic links to various psychological disorders have been discovered through these studies.
- Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the relationship between the immune system, the nervous system, and psychological processes.
- Psychiatric nurses must have a specialized knowledge about, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, neuronal processes, neuroendocrinology, circadian rhythms, genetic influences, PNI (psychoneuroimmunology), trauma, psychopharmacology, and diagnostic technology.
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