Anxiety Disorders: Norepinephrine And Its Effects On The Brain

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, roughly 40 million American adults suffer from one form of anxiety disorder or another, with only about one-third of those sufferers getting treatment despite the fact that many of disorders can be treated with pharmaceutical drugs. For example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac and Zoloft are two of the most common forms of drugs used to treat anxiety-related disorders, along with tranquilizers such as such as Valium and Xanax. Not always effective, these drugs can have adverse effects and tranquilizers can be extremely addictive. These factors have created a void for alternative forms of treatment, and this is where cannabis comes into play. The non-psychoactive

According to Kalat (2013), an individual’s genetics plays a key role in determining not only their facial features, but also their expressions. A comparison of relatives one sighted and the other blind revealed that there were similarities in their facial expressions. For individuals with sight, the ability to not only recognize faces but infer the mood of the individual is a skill that is learned early. This evolutionary adaptation has the ability to reveal an individual’s intentions, either friend or foe. Character judgments are a large part of human nature; so is the fear and anxiety that accompanies meeting an individual who appears threatening. Unfortunately for many, encounters with individuals who appear threatening or unfriendly is a normal part of life. However, the potential exists that the reason why an individual appears threating could be an issue with information processing or even an irrational learned fear. The amygdala is one of the key components of processing fears; additionally it serves as the portion of the brain, which regulate anxiety. Since both fear and anxiety is contained within the amygdala, the potential exists that if an individual suffers from anxiety they may have abnormal fears about the intentions of another individual. The purpose of this summary is to expand upon the connection of anxiety on an individual’s perceptions about a stranger’s trustworthiness and friendliness.

The difference between social anxiety disorder and other disorders is that a person is capable of enjoying themselves. This is because they are not impacted as severely physically since their fear is only stimulated in the event that they will have to be

Two of the functions of dopamine are to assist a person’s brain to block out distractions and control behavior, but when the level of dopamine is low the electric signals are slowed or stopped, therefore affecting the brain’s ability to manage executive functions and reducing coordination and memory. Serotonin affects mood, sleep, body temperature, and the awareness of pain and hunger. Low levels of serotonin can cause symptoms of depression and insomnia; a chronic issue seen in ADHD patients. Emotions and attentiveness are regulated by norepinephrine levels. Deficiencies may cause symptoms of anxiety and reduce the ability to maintain attention and focus. Epinephrine, like norepinephrine in low amounts also affects a person’s ability to pay attention. GABA, “gamma-amino butyric acid” inhibits the effects of other neurotransmitters, and low levels can have negative effects on coordination, movement, and vision (p. 59).

glucoprivation, and of manifestations of emotional distress. In contrast with the view that the sympathetic nervous and adrenomedullary hormonal systems function as a unit (the ‘sympathoadrenal system’) to maintain homeostasis in emergencies, across a variety of situations adrenaline responses are more closely linked to responses of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenocortical system than of the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic noradrenergic system is active even when the individual is at rest and maintains tonic levels of cardiovascular performance. Adrenoceptors in the membranes of effector cells determine the physiological and metabolic effects of catecholamines. Noradrenaline and adrenaline are catecholamines. Noradrenaline is the

In a prerecorded episode of crash course Hank Green vocalizes the need for awareness of a very minimalized disorder known as anxiety. Beginning with the introduction of anxiety in the 1970’s and ending with today’s perspective on anxiety. Green mentions that anxiety is something that not a lot of people understand. It’s part of being human but, can turn into fears, panic attacks and other disorders (C. 2014). Generally, that blinds others from grasping what anxiety really is and is usually used as a joke or explanation for a fear. The truth is that anxiety is not being afraid of spiders or organizing your closet twice a week. Anxiety is going beyond that organizing your closet two times a week and maybe doing it every day to the point where all your clothes are lined up in a certain way. Green also states that “anxiety is not just about the fear itself a key component is what people do to get rid

There are millions of neurotransmitters that flow through are body, but there are only a few that influence our behavior. Acetylcholine which controls our retention, knowledge, and voluntary movements. Excessive amounts of acetylcholine can cause unhappiness, while an inadequate amount of it can cause dementia. Serotonin controls our sex drive, forcefulness, and impulsiveness. If a restricted amount of serotonin is released it can increase sadness and unease. Dopamine regulates how we concentrate and how our movements are coordinated. An excessive amount of dopamine can result in Schizophrenia. Levels of dopamine can be increased by drugs, and other various ways. Norepinephrine cover our digestion and energy. A limited amount of this can increase

Serotonin, also known as 5-HT, is one of many brain chemicals that transmit messages between brain cells. Serotonin primarily influences feelings of happiness, optimism, and positivity. It also is in responsible for regulating the body’s sleep-wake cycle or internal clock. Normally, serotonin circulates in the brain and then absorbs into the bloodstream. Depression is linked with low levels of serotonin, as well as low levels of dopamine, norepinephrine, and other neurotransmitters (Delgado, 2000). Dopamine, another neurotransmitter, produces feelings of excitement, pleasure, euphoria, and creates motivation and drive. Too little dopamine can result in a variety of symptoms, including depression, anxiety, fatigue, apathy, slowed thinking, memory impairment, the inability to feel enthusiastic about anything, lack of motivation, excessive sleep, etc. (Delgado, 2000). Dopamine is also responsible for reward-seeking behavior. People with abnormally

What makes the anxiety vary from fear is that it is not focused on a specific event or object, and the person is not aware of the cause of unpleasant emotions. Depressing feeling, mood state, helplessness, hopelessness, followed by feelings of guilt, sadness, inadequacy is also affective reactions. Similarly anxiety that is experienced as a feeling of fear, but without an objective danger, depression is most easily be understood as a feeling of sadness, grief, for no apparent reason.

The synaptic gap or the synaptic cleft is where the axon is sending chemical substances to dendrite. Pre-synaptic neuron is transmitting neurotransmitter and post-synaptic neuron receives neurotransmitter. Neurotransmitter can affect or mental abilities and there are different types of them. Like; Acetylcholine (ACh), Dopamine, Serotonin, Norepinephrine, Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), Glutamate. Acetylcholine helps work the muscles. And also, learning and memory. When the brain not producing ACh the way they should be; this is how Alzheimer’s disease develop. Dopamine plays the role of moods, motivation, learning, and movement. Malfunctions of this neurotransmitter is Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. Parkinson’s happens when the brain is undersupplying of dopamine and schizophrenia is overproducing. Serotonin have an impact on mood, appetite, regulate sleep, and arousal. When the brain is undersupply of serotonin, mental disease like, depression are developed. This is why in antidepressant, it helps raise the levels of serotonin. Norepinephine have the ability to regulate alertness and arousal. Similar to serotonin, depression occur when there is a low amount levels of norepinephine. GABA is a very major neurotransmitter, it controls and regulate sleep, relaxation and anxiety. Seizures, tremors, and insomnia involves when the brain is low with GABA. Glutamate have similar ability to the

An anxiety disorder can affect one's family and friends in a number of ways. Specifically, the symptoms that one may experience during an anxiety disorder, which can include symptoms like irritability, tension, poor concentration, lack of sleep -- these can obviously affect one's interpersonal relationships with family members or one's ability to do one's work effectively.

Comment: The subjects were patients who had suffered a stroke and were recruited from three local rehabilitation hospitals in South Korea. They were recruited from a convenient sample of 50 patients (26 males and 24 females). They were treated on an inpatient basis at the local rehabilitation hospitals from May to October 2011. The ages of the subjects ranged from 47 to 72. “The inclusion criteria were: hemiplegia resulting from a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), not from trauma, brain tumor, surgery, or any other etiology; date of onset was at least six months before the date of assessment; the patient had to been admitted for one-month intensive rehabilitation therapy (two session of physical therapy and two sessions of occupational therapy

Norepinephrine is a drug that helps with medical needs. It is often used by doctors in the emergency room and sometimes during surgery. The drug is also used outside of the hospital by the patient but at a minimal and safe concentrated level. It is to assist people who are experiencing difficulties with ADHD, Depression, and Low blood pressure. When your pressure drops during surgery or the emergency room, a specific dose of norepinephrine is injected into you. This helps and allows the doctors to control your blood pressure and keep you stable when you're in a complicated situation.

I enjoyed the thoroughness of your forum post this week. I have heard anxiety referred to many times as a normal human reaction to a stressful situation. Personally, I found this week’s reading and forum assignment interesting. I agree that everyone deals with anxiety from time to time, I know that I have, however when you see someone who has a chronic anxiety disorder the difference is drastically apparent. I live with a person who has a chronic anxiety disorder and it has really helped me to see and understand anxiety in a way that is impossible to learn from a book. Prior to this week’s reading, I did not know that anxiety has such a high rate of heritability. I guess it makes sense that anxiety is an illness that can inherited,

This article is about trying to find a correlation about using medication and therapy to treat children’s severe anxiety by using an experimental setting. In the study, they knew that using either drugs or therapy is enough for them, but children still couldn’t stop their anxiety. That is where this study comes in because it suggests that using both treatments at the same time will help the children. The children were a total of 488 people from ages 7-17 were put into four groups. One group were giving a combination of therapy and an anti-depressant called Sertraline. The next group was given a placebo. For the third group, they were given therapy and the last group was given the anti-depressant. The trail ending with data showing that