Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An implicit premise in neuropsychopharmacology with regard to the psychological aspects is that all states of mind, including both normal and drug-induced altered states, and diseases involving mental or cognitive dysfunction, have a neurochemical basis at the fundamental level, and certain circuit pathways in the central nervous system at a higher level.
There are many types of drugs, legal and illegal, that affect dopamine and its interactions in the brain. With Parkinson's disease, a disease that decreases the amount of dopamine in the brain, the dopamine precursor Levodopa is given to the patient due to the fact that dopamine cannot cross the blood–brain barrier and L-dopa can.
Some of the most common naturally occurring brain toxins that lead to neurotoxicity as a result of long term drug use are amyloid beta (Aβ), glutamate, dopamine, and oxygen radicals. When present in high concentrations, they can lead to neurotoxicity and death . Some of the symptoms that result from cell death include loss of motor control ...
If death occurs this is typically due to a lack of breathing. [3] Barbiturate overdose may occur by accident or purposefully in an attempt to cause death. [3] The toxic effects are additive to those of alcohol and benzodiazepines. [3] The lethal dose varies with a person's tolerance and how the drug is taken. [3]
In 72% of the cases, benzodiazepines were the only drug consumed. Thus, many of deaths associated with benzodiazepine overdoses may not be a direct result of the toxic effects but either due to being combined with other drugs or used as a tool to kill oneself using a different method, e.g. drowning. [55]
Once the drug cannot pass back through the barrier the drug can be concentrated and made effective for therapeutic use. [7] However drawbacks to this exist as well. Once the drug is in the brain there is a point where it needs to be degraded to prevent overdose to the brain tissue. Also if the drug cannot pass back through the blood–brain ...
In addition, due to their blockade of certain serotonin receptors, serotonergic neurotransmission is not facilitated in unwanted areas, which prevents the incidence of many side effects often associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants; [1] [3] hence, in part, the "specific serotonergic" label of NaSSAs. [2]
Psychoactive drugs exert their sensory and behavioral effects almost entirely by acting on neurotransmitters and by modifying one or more aspects of synaptic transmission. Neurotransmitters can be viewed as chemicals through which neurons primarily communicate; psychoactive drugs affect the mind by altering this communication.