Psychopharmacology

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses this medical innovation which has become a complicated medical issue. It discusses how these drugs are used to improve brain function and how both the appropriate and inappropriate use of these drugs can have a profound effect on both mind and body. It explains why the drugs can have physical as well as behavioral or emotional effects and how sometimes the side effects can be managed well, but sometimes can cause or aggravate another problem.

From the Paper:

"The human nervous system has very specific cells that allow the nervous system to communicate within themselves. "Interneurons" exist only in the brain and spinal cord and receive signals from the rest of the body from sensory neurons as well as from other interneurons. There may be as many as 100 billion interneurons, with up to 1,000 synapses where other neurons can communicate with them (Kimball, 2003). There are many different kinds of interneurons.
Most neurons communicate by releasing neurotransmitters to another cell. The part of the cell that sends the message is called an axon. It does not directly touch another cell's synapses, but sends out a neurotransmitter. Different synapses are configured to receive different neurotransmitters (Hamilton & Timmons, 1994). The space between the axon of one cell and the synapse of the next is sometimes called the synaptic cleft, and the goal of many psychotropic drugs is to affect this process in one of several ways."

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