Neuroendocrinology

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.