ENTRIES A–Z
Philip Winn in Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
Neurochemistry is the study of the chemistry of the nervous system. Used as a noun, neurochemical refers to a chemical having a neural function. All NEUROTRANSMITTERS are neurochemicals, for instance. As an adjective neurochemical is used to described processes, events, or mechanisms that pertain to chemical transmission in the nervous system. Neurochemical processes therefore pertain to the events that are associated with this process, including modulation of release of the transmitter, control of extracellular levels, action of the neurochemical on receptors, such as POSTSYNAPTIC RECEPTORS, PRESYNAPTIC autoreceptors, and REUPTAKE sites, and intracellular events. Such things are the subject matter of neurochemistry. Researchers in the fields of NEUROPHARMACOLOGY and PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY also investigate neurochemical processes.
Overview of Neurotransmission: Relationship to the Action of Antiepileptic Drugs
Carl L. Faingold, Gerhard H. Fromm in Drugs for Control of Epilepsy:, 2019
In the sections that follow we have reviewed the fundamental aspects of the neuro-chemistry of neurotransmitters of interest and briefly discussed how certain antiepileptic drugs have been shown to influence those individual neurotransmitters. The purpose is simply to provide an overview of the neurochemistry that can be used to understand the material in subsequent chapters without additional reference materials. The reader will note that considerably more space has been devoted to discussing neurotransmitter neurochemistry than to the action of antiepileptic drugs on neurotransmitters. The reason for the disproportionate devotion of space is that the mechanism of action of antiepileptic drugs (including the role of neurotransmitters therein) is discussed in more detail in the individual chapters (elsewhere in this monograph) devoted to each of those drugs. An overview of the effects of antiepileptic drugs on the various neurotransmitters can also be found in Table 1.
Physical activity and mental health
Joe Piggin, Louise Mansfield, Mike Weed in Routledge Handbook of Physical Activity Policy and Practice, 2018
As per the Bradford-Hill criteria (Hill 1965) for making a case for causality, it is important to understand potential mechanisms of the antidepressant effect of exercise. Several plausible biological and psychosocial mechanisms have been proposed for the efficacy of exercise in treating depression. The primary biological mechanisms that have been suggested can be broadly categorized as changes in 1) neurochemistry or 2) neuroplasticity. Changes in brain neurochemistry refer to altering the amount of neurotransmitters available in the synapses between neurons, and is the primary target of psychiatric medications. Neuroplasticity on the other hand is the creation of new neurons (neurogenesis) and new connections between neurons (synaptogenesis), and is a relatively novel mechanism that has been proposed.
Gut microbes in neurocognitive and mental health disorders
Published in Annals of Medicine, 2020
Tyler Halverson, Kannayiram Alagiakrishnan
There is evolving evidence that the GM can influence the brain cells in addition to intestinal cells, supporting that gut microbial composition contributes to brain health. The connection between the GM and the central nervous system, with implications for mental health, including cognition, has been discussed. Bowel microbes can produce neurotransmitters found in the human brain, thus having an influence on the brain neurochemistry, and also on brain disorders including cognitive, mood and behavioural ones. In summary, these observations in animal and human studies showed the evidence for an association between gut dysbiosis through the microbiota-gut brain axis with different mental health and neurocognitive disorders. Moreover, psychotropics used to treat these mental disorders can affect the GM due to their antimicrobial effects. The novel strategies of microbiota interventions, such as probiotic use and faecal transplant, may have a role in the clinical management of mental health disorders. More research is needed in all these areas before applying these strategies in clinical practice.
Letter to the editor concerning the pharmacological management of behavioral disturbances in patients with Alzheimer’s disease
Published in Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, 2020
Angela Scicutella
Further understanding of the neural underpinnings of these behaviors is essential to try to correlate them with neuroanatomy, neurochemistry and neuropathology in order to design better agents and to intervene in a pro-active or prophylactic way. With that in mind, another avenue to pursue in the quest for a change in the reactionary approach to NPS, may be to focus attention on agents that are targeted toward vascular pathology; recent research indicates that vascular damage may incite the onset of AD pathology [10,11] and furthermore that non-cognitive symptoms such as depression, psychosis, apathy and anxiety are frequently associated with vascular disease as has been shown in imaging studies [12]. Perhaps patients with underlying vascular risk factors whose imaging evidence decreased perfusion and/or white matter hyperintensities [12] can be identified at an early stage and agents possibly shown to be useful in mouse models with vascular pathology can be trialed for treatment of non-cognitive symptoms.
Drug dependence as a split object: Trajectories of neuroscientification and behavioralization at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
Published in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2023
Lisa Malich
His approach did not simply add a neurochemical level to research on pharmacological-toxicological effects like LSD research had done. It also moved away from the previous focus on short-term drug effects, understood as models for other mental disorders, such as psychoses. Now, neurochemical drug action was no longer an epistemic detour to another research object; it was itself the primary research object and directly connected to the mental disorder of dependence. In this way, the neurochemical manifestation of drug dependence emerged as a scientific object in its own right. Accordingly, Herz’s group also investigated the neurochemistry of withdrawal syndromes related to opiates, as well as receptors and endorphins in opiate addiction (operationalized on morphine-dependent rats; Bläsig et al. 1972; Höllt et al. 1978).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Biochemistry
- Nervous System
- Neural Network
- Neurochemical
- Neuropeptide
- Psychoactive Drug
- Synapse
- Neurotransmitter
- Neuroscience
- Neuron