Serotonin

“Serotonin impacts every part of your body, from your emotions to your motor skills. Serotonin is considered a natural mood stabilizer and the chemical that helps sleeping, eating, and digesting. Serotonin also helps reduce depression, regulate anxiety, heal wounds, stimulate nausea, and maintain bone health” (ScacciaMedically). Many people get misdiagnosed…

For thousands of years, in order to ensure their longevity, mankind has had to find the cures to their diseases and illnesses within the world around them. For most of human existence, we did not have doctors and pharmacies as we know them today. Cures and therapies were made from plants and animals found around people’s native environments. As mankind progressed and industrialized the world, we learned how to control the world around us, how to manipulate it on an atomic and molecular level.…

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder where a person has uncontrollable obsessions and compulsions that he or she feels the urge to repeat. Obsessions are urges, thoughts, or mental images that cause a person anxiety or stress. Compulsions are the repetitive behaviors that a person feels the urge to do based on the obsessive thoughts. Symptoms of OCD can interfere with all aspects of life. A symptom of OCD is fear of germs or contamination that leads to excessive cleaning.…

(Magni). Many people today still struggle with depression, and it’s important for them to be informed on drugs that may be able to treat them and turn their life around, such as Prozac. A serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), Prozac works by selectively allowing serotonin to accumulate in the brains synapses. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that has to do with the control of sleep states, mood, sexual…

exact pathophysiology of hot flashes is still unclear, the proposed mechanism is decreased levels of neurotransmitters in the thermoregulatory center of the hypothalamus. Estrogen withdrawal induces production of hypothalamic norepinephrine and serotonin, which lowers the thermoregulatory threshold and causes greater sensitivity to changes in core body temperature. A small rise in temperature can cause hot flashes: sudden feelings of warmth, perspiration, increased heart rate, and anxiety.1,2…

depression appears to have a specific effect on the serotonin neurotransmitter system (Vallone, 1997). The introduction of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has dramatically changed the treatment of depression around the world ((Vallone, 1997). The neurotransmitter serotonin affects many diverse functions, such as mood, sleep, appetite, sexual function and body temperature (Vallone, 1997). SSRIs work by blocking the reuptake of serotonin back into the presynaptic neuron, increasing…

whether medication or therapy is the best way to cope with mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. Medication used for psychological disorders are all neurotransmission blockers. This means that the neurotransmitter classified as serotonin or dopamine, two of the more popular transmitters discussed in regards to mental illnesses like depression. These medications block the site where the transmitter binds. Normally,…

feeling of worthlessness, loss of interest, fatigued, anxious, irritable, loss or increase in appetite, sleep difficulty, suicidal talk and or attempt • Treatment: -Talk therapy -Group therapy -Electroconvulsive therapy -Medications: 1. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): Fluoxetine (Prozac), Citalopram (Celexa), or Paroxetine (Paxil) 2. Tricyclic Antidepressants: Amoxapine (Asendin), Desipramine (Norpramin), Doxepin (Sinequan), Clomipramine (Anafranil) 3. Monoamine Oxidase…

family member with OCD as well. Genes, namely a mutation in the human serotonin transporter gene, definitely has an impact on the progression of OCD. Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that is in charge of sending messages between brain cells. hSERT, a key gene in this process, carries the…

Jennifer is a 25 year-old young woman, who lives with her current boyfriend, Mark. Jennifer’s biological father died when she was 2 years old. During the majority of her childhood, she and her brother were raised by her mother and stepfather. Jennifer’s life, from infancy to adulthood has been a tumultuous one- fraught with circumstances that have deeply affected her through to her core being. Never knowing her biological father, being witness to her family’s explosive arguments, domestic…