Demystifying Neurotransmitters: Serotonin, Dopamine, and Beyond

Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes looks at 6 of the most important neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Each neurotransmitter has a role in our physiology and behavior, and understanding their function is key to understanding the brain and nervous system. In this video, we'll discuss each neurotransmitter's role in brain function and behavior, and discuss some of the diseases and conditions that can affect neurotransmitter function.
Doc Snipes is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Qualified Clinical Supervisor. She received her PhD in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Florida in 2002. In addition to being a practicing clinician, she has provided training to counselors, social workers, nurses and case managers internationally since 2006 through AllCEUs.com What are #dopamine, #serotonin, norepinephrine, glutamate, #GABA, acetylcholine? What does dopamine do?
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Video by Dr. Dawn Elise Snipes on integrative behavioral health approaches including counseling techniques and skills for improving mental health and reducing mental illness.
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Objectives
~ Define Neurobiology
~ For the following neurotransmitters, Dopamine, GABA, Serotonin, Acetylcholine, identify
~ Their mechanism of action/purpose
~ Where they are found
~ Symptoms of excess & insufficiency
~ Nutritional building blocks
Dopamine
~ Mechanism of action/purpose
~ movement
~ memory
~ pleasurable reward
~ behavior and cognition
~ attention
~ inhibition of prolactin production
~ sleep
~ mood
~ learning
Norepinepherine
~ Function
~ Fight or flight excitatory neurotransmitter
~ Implicated in motivation
~ Symptoms of Insufficiency
~ When faced with severe stress, the stress response system activates raising norepinephrine and stress hormones
~ This increases arousal, increases insomnia, anxiety, depression, irritability, or emotional instability.
~ Prolonged stress leads to underactivity of the stress response system (desensitization)
~ This lowers arousal and can result in low energy, daytime fatigue, concentration/focus issues, and general apathy.
Glutamate
~ Is an amino acid (present in most high protein foods)
~ Most prevalent excitatory neurotransmitter
~ Used to make GABA (teeter-totter)
~ Facilitates learning and memory
GABA
~ Mechanism of action/purpose
~ Anti-anxiety, Anti-convulsant
~ GABA is made from glutamate
~ GABA functions as an inhibitory neurotransmitter
~ GABA does the opposite and tells the adjoining cells not to “fire”
~ Where is it found
~ Close to 40% of the synapses in the human brain work with GABA and therefore have GABA receptors
Summary
~ There are a variety of different neurotransmitters involved in addiction and mental health disorders
~ It is not always about increasing a neurotransmitter. Sometimes you need to decrease it.
~ Human brains try to maintain homeostasis and too much or too little can be bad
~ A balanced diet will provide the brain the necessary nutrients in synergystic combinations
Think about
~ A client who presents with apathy/loss of pleasure, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 What is neurobiology and why do we care
06:20 Functions of Dopamine
10:20 Symptoms of too much or too little dopamine
14:40 Foods to increase dopamine
22:35 FUnctions of norepinephrine
25:10 Foods to increase norepinephrine noradrenaline
26:10 What is glutamate
27:47 What is GABA
29:45 Foods to increase GABA
32:15 What is serotonin and what does serotonin do
33:40 Symptoms of too much serotonin -- Serotonin syndrome
36:00 Foods to increase serotonin
37:55 Serotonin receptors
45:35 What is acetylcholine