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Fenugreek in Management of Neurological and Psychological Disorders
Published in Dilip Ghosh, Prasad Thakurdesai, Fenugreek, 2022
Rohini Pujari, Prasad Thakurdesai
Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent among all psychological disorders, characterized by extreme and unnecessary worry; continuous feelings of terror, doubt, and fear; intense nervousness, uneasiness, and tension; impending disaster and apprehension; sympathetic motor hyperactivity that disturbs usual emotional and physical functions (Cha et al. 2005; Chatterjee et al. 2013). Different anxiety disorders include traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias, generalized anxiety disorders, and panic disorders. Current therapies with conventional anxiolytic medicines are associated with several adverse drug reactions with enhanced tolerance and dependency upon chronic treatment (Bourin 2018). The design and development of newer anti-anxiety agents, especially those belonging to the herbal origin with lesser side effects, have become essential in neuropharmacology research (Faustino, Almeida, and Andreatini 2010). Fenugreek is one source of such natural products that was reported to have anxiolytic activity in several preclinical and clinical studies (Assad and Khan 2017; Dhananjaya et al. 2011; Hausenblas et al. 2020; Iyer et al. 2004; Mohan et al. 2006).
Multiple Commitments
Published in Hanna Pickard, Serge H. Ahmed, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Science of Addiction, 2019
Addiction is understood to result from complex entanglements of pharmacological effects and vulnerabilities deriving from aspects of social life, socioeconomic status, and political position. Typically, scientists bracketed the latter effects. Longtime CDA chair Nathan B. Eddy wrote that even if safer analgesics were found, “We shall still have the opium-producing countries . . . We shall still have the established machinery for illicit production and distribution of heroin . . . [and] We shall still have social & psychological forces that encourage potential addicts to dose themselves with drugs” (1963: 679). Clinical researchers—and their emerging preclinical colleagues—characterized craving, dependence, tolerance, withdrawal, and relapse as systematic neurophysiological phenomena in a stable pattern of investigation that lasted until the emergence of neuropharmacology in the 1960s. The expansion of animal research in the 1960s replied directly to statutory requirements, but new technologies increasingly offered researchers methods for looking at animal and later at human brains.
Can Narcolepsy Be Eradicated in This Millennium?
Published in Meeta Goswami, Charles P. Pollak, Felissa L. Cohen, Michael J. Thorpy, Neil B. Kavey, Austin H. Kutscher, Jill C. Crabtree, Psychosocial Aspects of Narcolepsy, 2015
William Dement, Emmanuel Mignot
The gigantic strides made in certain areas of medical research, such as immunology, have been the result of a combination of large numbers of competent, dedicated, brilliant investigators and the critical mass of scientific knowledge upon which to build additional experiments. The time to solve the problem of narcolepsy is now. We know a great deal and are on the track of the gene responsible for narcolepsy. Neuropharmacology has achieved enormous progress and its findings should be applied. In addition, critical experiments can be designed. If we seize all the opportunities and build upon them, and work together, narcolepsy will be eradicated in our lifetime, and the year 2000 will see the elimination of this scourge that afflicts a million or more individuals worldwide and keeps from them the joy of being alert, energetic, and fulfilling their capacities through their waking hours.
Designer benzodiazepines: an update
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 2023
Xiao Yu, H Karl Greenblatt, David J Greenblatt
Benzodiazepine agonists act via binding to an allosteric site on the γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABAA-BZ), which increases the chloride ion channel opening frequency, leading to cell hyperpolarization [51]. Benzodiazepines also activate the GABAA receptors located in the ventral tegmental area, leading to dopaminergic disinhibition, and possibly contributing to the potential for abuse [52]. Direct evidence on the neuropharmacology of most designer benzodiazepines is sparse, but quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) models indicate that DBs have high binding affinity for the GABAA-BZ receptor complex [43,45]. The conclusion is that DBs are full-agonist ligands for the GABAA-BZ receptor, and accordingly have properties similar or identical to legitimate benzodiazepines approved for clinical use. Several new DBs have been studied individually. The pharmacologic effects of DBs are reportedly reversed by flumazenil, a GABAA-BZ antagonist [45,53].
The transnational move of interdisciplinarity: Ginseng and the beginning of neuroscience in South Korea, 1970–1990s
Published in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2022
In the United States during the late-twentieth century, neuroscience witnessed a series of new discoveries on neurotransmitters and their functions in the brain. In neuropharmacology, therefore, many researchers concentrated, first, on understanding neurotransmitters; second, on finding a way to specifically intervene in their working mechanism; and, third, on developing a new target-specific drug on the central nervous system.10See David Healy’s (2002) work on the rise of psycho- or neuropharmacology in the United States and David Herzberg’s (2009) work on the proliferation of “happy pills” such as Miltown, Valium, and Prozac and their surrounding industries and cultures. Also, see Elliot S. Valenstein’s work (2005), especially Chapter 10, on the emergence of new scientific discoveries about neurotransmitters in the central nervous system in the United States. From Park’s point of view, it led to the proliferation of research “focusing on certain components in the brain” but had limitations. The accumulation of understanding of the components in the brain would not bring a holistic understanding of the brain.
Therapeutic potential of Panax ginseng and its constituents, ginsenosides and gintonin, in neurological and neurodegenerative disorders: a patent review
Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, 2019
Arezoo Rajabian, Maryam Rameshrad, Hossein Hosseinzadeh
In this review, we gathered patents that have mentioned the therapeutic or pharmaceutical potential of ginseng and its major constituents alone or in combination with the other agents in neurodegenerative diseases including PD and AD, cerebral ischemia, epilepsy, psychosis, and other neurological disorders. In this regards, the findings were gathered from specialized research data bases (including Google Patent, Espacenet, and US Patent) from 2010 to 2018; verifying keywords were neuropharmacology, learning, memory, neurocognitive, neurodegenerative, neurological disorders, AD, PD, MS, Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cerebral ischemia, ginseng, ginsenoside, and ginonin.