Psychological Effects Of Serotonin

The cerebral cortex directs functions like speech, behavior, reactions, movement, thinking, and learning. In fact, some research suggests that bipolar disorder originates with problems with the thalamus, which links sensory input to good and bad feelings. The hippocampus also affects depression. It, like the amygdala, is part of the limbic system. It is vital in processing long-term memory. This section of the brain registers recurring fear. In people with clinical depression, the hippocampus is much smaller. Research suggests, even, that ongoing exposure to stress impairs the growth of nerve cells in this part of the brain. One of the most important jobs of the brain is to process senses, through neurons. Neurotransmitters are specific substances that help relay information to the brain. Scientists have identified many neurotransmitters that affect depression. A lack or excess of the neurotransmitters acetylcholine, serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, glutamate, lithium carbonate and gamma-aminobutyric acid are thought to contribute to depression. Acetylcholine is involved in learning and enhances memory. Serotonin helps regulate sleep, appetite, and mood, and inhibits pain. Research shows the idea that many depressed people have reduced levels of serotonin. Low levels of a byproduct of serotonin have been linked to a high risk for suicide. Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter which constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. An excess in

Serotonin is found in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the central nervous system (CNS). Serotonin in the CNS affects learning, appetite, mood, and sleep. In the GI, it is used to control appetite and digestion. A few feelings come as a result of serotonin, such as happiness, relaxation, and security. Low serotonin levels can cause depression, anxiety, and

The belief is that antidepressants work by increasing levels of a group of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. Certain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and noradrenaline, can improve mood and emotion, although we do not yet fully understand this process

If you have been diagnosed with depression, you most likely will be told it is due to a deficiency of serotonin. Serotonin is regarded by many people as the basic neurotransmitter, or chemical hormone, that regulates mood. It plays the central role in the regulation of human mood and temperament. Serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter which works with the excitatory sympathetic systems, like adrenaline and dopamine, in the central nervous system. Most widely researched are the effects on the central nervous system. An oversupply of serotonin can occur, though it is not as common, and it can cause vivid hallucinations, vascular disorders, and psychotic disorders. If you have a sustained decrease in serotonin, the following will occur: increase in anxiety, loss of interest, and lack of concentration. Having a decrease or imbalance in the body sounds somewhat alarming, but there are ways to cope and restore normal balances regarding serotonin.

Depression being an affective mood disorder is a serious global public health issue with over 350 million sufferers worldwide8,10,11. Although it is described with feelings of low mood, inadequacy, guilt, low self-worth, loss of motivation, interest, pleasure and concentration; it is also associated with a functional deficit of the monoamine transmitters (serotonin and noradrenaline) in certain brain regions such as amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex6,10. It can also induce biological symptoms like retardation of thought and action as well as sleep disturbances, loss of appetite and libido and if left untreated, it can eventually lead to disability8,11. Therefore, the pharmacotherapy plays a crucial role in the treatment of depression.

Tryptophan is a large neutral amino acid present in living organisms, which is precisely one of the twenty L-amino acids incorporated in proteins and one of the nine essential amino acids which cannot be endogenously synthesised and needs to be supplied with ailments. It is a precursor for various neurotransmitters such as serotonin, which is essential for maintaining mood balance and the regulation of appetite. It is also regarded that a deficit of the neurotransmitter may lead to depression and other mood disorders. With that being said, intake of serotonin precursors is essential for the amount of serotonin in the brain.

Depression is the fourth leading cause of disease burden worldwide and is expected to show a rising trend over the next 20 years. Depression is associated with a marked personal, social and economic morbidity, loss of functioning and productivity, and creates significant demands on service providers in terms of workload. Although pharmacological and psychological interventions are both effective for major depression, antidepressant drugs remain the mainstay of treatment. During the last 20 years, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have progressively become the most commonly prescribed antidepressants. Sertraline, one of the first SSRIs introduced in the market, is a potent and specific inhibitor of serotonin uptake into the presynaptic

Neurotransmitter Systems. The study of monoamines in relation to MDD has been at the forefront for the majority of the time that the subject itself has been under research. With a particular focus on serotonin (but also norepinephrine and dopamine), these studies find that the rate of serotonin synthesis is often low in depressed patients (Rosa-Neto et al., 2004). Interpretation of serotonin levels may however become problematic, because it can be concluded that: depression may cause a low synthesis of serotonin; a low synthesis of serotonin may cause depression; or that another third process may cause both a low synthesis of serotonin and depression simultaneously. There is little doubt that a decrease in serotonin plays a key role in MDD but the notion of whether the neurotransmitter’s absence is a mechanism that is uniquely responsible, or merely a

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in the brain that has an immense effect over many functions of the brain. “Cells that make serotonin use tryptophan hydroxylase, a chemical reactor which, when combined with tryptophan, forms 5-hydroxytryptamine”. Serotonin can be discovered three key parts of the body. However, the main location of serotonin lies within the intestinal walls. It is also located within large blood vessels throughout the body and the central nervous system. The most commonly studied area of the body when it comes to serotonin, is how this neurotransmitter effects the central nervous system. The functions of serotonin are abundant and can include the regulation of many important attributes of the human body such as appetite, sleep, mood, behavior, endocrine regulation, and depression.

One disorder that is related to Serotonin is Serotonin Syndrome; which causes diarrhea, headache, confusion and high blood pressure. Serotonin syndrome can be treated by stopping any medications you're taking that could be increasing your serotonin levels. (http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/serotonin-syndrome-causes-symptoms-treatments)

This gene erodes eighty percent of serotonin generated in the brain due to the presence of the mutant gene. The enzyme tryptophan hydroxlase-2; produces the serotonin levels in the brain. Caron et al had investigated that this gene was present within 9/87 patients with depression, with an exceptional 3/219 healthy controls. SSRI medication did not have a reaction with the medication as it did have an effect with the intake of

Every once in awhile, some people get moody, while others have one mood that soars out of control, soon taking over completely. When this happens, the diagnosis will be a mood disorder. Mood disorders happen when moods careen out of control, soaring to extreme elation or plunging to deep depression. Depression is one of the best-known mood disorders, by depriving a person from living a normal life, either in work or at home with family, depression affects the way a person may act ( McLeod, Saul. "Psychological Theories of Depression." Simply Psychology. 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.). The response many depressed patients have to certain drugs with neurotransmitters, norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine, all indicate the relationship of causation between the biological basis of depression and the use of drugs. Depression can also be caused by viral infections in rare occasions. Since there are many different causes for depression, these different causes help support the theory that depression is just a collection of different disorders (Zimbardo, Philip G., Robert L. Johnson, and Ann L. Weber. Psychology Core Concepts. 5th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2008. Print.).

Serotonin syndrome is a drug-induced syndrome that results in mental, autonomic and neuromuscular changes. A range of toxic symptoms including clonus, hyperreflexia, tremor, agitation, confusion and shivering are results of the increased serotonin concentrations in the central nervous system (Hall and Buckley, 2003). Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is a neurotransmitter produced from the decarboxylation and hydroxylation of tryptophan. Serotonin is stored within the vesicles and released into the synaptic cleft when stimulated (Volpi-Abadie et al., 2013). As serotonin influences on mood, sleep, vomiting and pain perception, the serotonin levels are tightly regulated by the reuptake mechanisms, degradation by monoamine oxidase type A and feedback loop (Thanacoody,

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is a neurotransmitter in the brain that has an enormous influence over many brain functions. It is synthesized, from the amino acid L-tryptophan, in brain neurons and stored in vesicles. Serotonin is found in three main areas of the body: the intestinal wall; large constricted blood vessels; and the central nervous system. The most widely studied effects have been those on the central nervous system. The functions of serotonin are numerous and appear to involve control of appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, mood, behavior (including sexual and hallucinogenic behavior), cardiovascular function, muscle contraction, endocrine regulation, and

Synaptic activity is vital for the passage of information throughout the nervous system, as it allows for electrical impulses to be passed from one neuron to another. Electrical impulses in the form of action potentials are passed through the axon of a neuron towards the axon terminal. This information is then passed across the synaptic cleft to receptors present on the postsynaptic membrane via the process of neurotransmission. Drugs can interrupt this specific process in a variety of ways such as through affecting the production, storage and release of neurotransmitters, the presynaptic and postsynaptic receptors as well as the reuptake and destruction of neurotransmitters (Carlson, 2014). Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs) are just two types of drugs which can affect different pathways in this process of neurotransmission. In doing so, the neurotransmitter serotonin is made more available within the central nervous system (CNS), a neurotransmitter believed to be central to the affective disorder of depression, which is caused by a deficiency of serotonin.