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Issues in Psychopharmacology
“Over 57.7 million Americans are affected by some kind of mental disorder” (The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America, 2008). Within that 57.7 million, more than 6 million are affected by mood disorders, dysthymic, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar illness, eating disorders, suicide, anxiety and other mental illnesses. All which cause problems for people in normal daily activities (The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America, 2008).
In order to understand Bipolar , the symptoms and how medications, such as mood stabilizers, antidepressants and antipsychotic all affect this process, research is necessary to understand how impulses are transferred from one nerve to the next. By way of a sac or vesicle, a message comes into one end allowing an electrical impulse to travel down the other end of the cell, also known as the tail of the cell or axon. This causes the release of the appropriate neurotransmitter. The synaptic cleft is where molecules of the neurotransmitter ferry into the tiny space between nerve cells. Neurotransmitters have certain shapes in order to fit in certain molecules, receptors on the adjacent cell membrane. Mood disorders occur when problems arise during this process (Purse, n.d.).
Within these cells, ions such as calcium, sodium, potassium and chloride move through the cell membrane and become responsible for their excitability and electrical properties. Chemical and electrical properties contacts between neurons permit the ions to fire together (Papolos & Papolos, 2006, p. 223).
Neurotransmitters signaling systems most related to mood disorders are monoamines: serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. Cells in the brain stem that contain norepinephrine are clusters called locus coeruleus. This system alerts the brain to deal with environmental situations.
Studies show that sensory neurons in the neocortex may decrease random firing and respond to outside stimuli...