To What Extent Are Neurotransmitters Implicated In Schizophrenia

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L. Wade               PSYV104        Page         5/5/2007

To What Extent Are Neurotransmitters Implicated In Schizophrenia 

During the course of this essay.  The effects of Schizophrenia will be discussed, and whether or not neurotransmitters have a major implication in the diagnosis of such a disease.  First we will look at the neurotransmitters, and how they develop.  Followed by the biological implications towards Schizophrenia.  Concluding with empirical evidence to support or disagree with the different aspects that effect the prognosis of Schizophrenia.

Neurotransmitters basically evolve through the synoptic knob.  This is where an impulse arrives at the synoptic knob, causing calcium to diffuse into from a surrounding tissue fluid.  These Ions break down only a few of the synoptic vesicles to transfer to the synaptic membrane.  Which then transmits a discharge known as a neurotransmitter.  There are over 50 different neurotransmitters within the Human nervous system.  But, there have only been two neurotransmitters that have been broadly studied.  They are Acetycholine and Norepinephrine.

Acetypcholine originates within the neuromuscular nerve junctions, which tend to be released at the synapses of skeletal muscles, and they consist from many other nerve endings within the brain.  Acetycholine is often associated with Alzheimer’s disease.  Norepinephrine is released by sympathetic neurons, and it is these sympathetic neurons that are found in the brain and spinal cord.

Dopamine is also a transmitter that evolves from the same metabolic pathways as Norepinephrine.  Both Dopamine and Norepinephrine are neurotransmitters from epinephrine, and belong to a class of compounds called Biogenicamines.  After they are released from the Biogenicamines they can be absorbed into the vesicles of the synoptic knob.  Where some neurotransmitters will be degraded by the enzymes known as Catechol –o- methytransferase, (mohamines).  The mohamines are thought to regulate concentration from the catecholines.  But, catecholines can effect the mood.

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Although Dopamine and Norepinephrine are structurally the same, they only differ by an extra –OH group on the Norepinephrine molecule.  The nerve cells that benefit from Norepinephrine have the exact enzyme which joins the –OH group to Dopamine.

Schizophrenia has been a topic of debate that has been widely critized by all different approaches in psychology.  However, the Biological implications tend to concentrate on the abnormalities of a behaviour, and how it can happen, referring to the medical model manual as a backup.  But, assuming to this model most disorders are based on physical causes, as Kraepelin (1883) ...

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