Foundational Neuroscience

Foundational Neuroscience

Psychopharmacologic agents are drugs that are used in the management of mental illnesses. Psychopharmacologic agents interact with the human body at the cellular level to either increase or decrease certain brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters. The ultimate goal of increasing or decreasing the brain’s chemical levels is to improve the mental health of the affected individual.

Explain the agonist-to-antagonist spectrum of action of psychopharmacologic agents.

Agonists are drugs with affinity coupled with intrinsic efficacy and act by binding to specific cellular receptors and producing the same action as endogenous human chemicals (Berg & Clarke, 2018). Psychopharmacological agonist drugs bind to the receptor, usually bound by an endogenous chemical, and produce the same effect in the brain. On the other hand, antagonists have receptor affinity but lack receptor efficacy and, therefore, bind to cellular receptors and inhibit the action of endogenous chemicals at the receptor level(Berg & Clarke, 2018). The net effect of antagonists is to reduce the cellular activity of a specific endogenous brain chemical, thereby reducing the overall impact of the neurotransmitter in the brain. Through binding to the receptor site, an antagonist prevents agonists from binding to the receptor and inducing a cellular response.

Compare and contrast the actions of g-couple proteins and ion-gated channels.

Postsynaptic response to neurotransmitters is mediated significantly by two classes of receptor proteins that regulate the closure and opening of the postsynaptic membrane. Biologically, neurotransmitters act on different types of receptors, which are mainly ion-gated or G-coupled proteins (Yam et al., 2018). Both ion-gated channels and G-protein coupled receptors bind to a neurotransmitter before activation and regulate the action of the postsynaptic membrane. Generally, the ligand ion-gated channels mediate rapid postsynaptic responses compared to the slow-mediated postsynaptic responses by the g-coupled proteins. Ion-gated receptors bind to specific ligands, first causing the opening of ion channels in the cell membrane, leading to ions in the cell. In contrast, G-protein-linked receptors first bind to their specific ligands and then activate the G-protein, leading to the opening of ion channels in the cell membrane. Therefore, in contrast to ion-gated channels, the G-coupled proteins act as transducers to initiate modulation of the postsynaptic membrane by neurotransmitters (Yam et al., 2018).

Explain the role of epigenetics in pharmacologic action.

Epigenetics is defined as a gene modulation method that can either promote or suppress the expression of specific genes without altering the individual’s genetic (DNA) makeup. The DNA sequence of the individual is not changed, and there is no change in the phenotypic expression of genes. Changes that are invariably affected by epigenetics include a change in the expression of specific genes that lead to the development of diseases such as mental diseases. Epigenetics can also affect metabolic enzymes by increasing or decreasing the metabolism of different chemical compounds. The knowledge of epigenetics can create pharmacologic agents that suppress the formation of genes that lead to mental illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease(Prachayasittikul et al., 2017).

Analyze the impact of foundational neuroscience on the prescription of medications.

Mental health nurse practitioners need to have adequate knowledge of neuroscience to treat mentally ill patients objectively. Understanding psychopharmacological drugs helps mental health nurse practitioners effectively choose the correct medication for different mental illnesses. Depending on the patient’s mental illness, mental health nurse practitioners should decide to either increase or decrease the action of a particular neurotransmitter. Patients with schizophrenia are thought to have increased dopamine levels in the brain and should be given a dopamine antagonist to relieve their symptoms. A psychiatric mental health nurse should know agonists and antagonists to choose dopamine antagonists, such as haloperidol, to treat schizophrenia patients(McCutcheon et al., 2020).

References

Berg, K. A., & Clarke, W. P. (2018). Making Sense of Pharmacology: Inverse Agonism and Functional Selectivity. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 21(10), 962–977. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyy071

McCutcheon, R. A., Krystal, J. H., & Howes, O. D. (2020). Dopamine and glutamate in schizophrenia: Biology, symptoms and treatment. World Psychiatry, 19(1), 15–33. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20693

Prachayasittikul, V., Prathipati, P., Pratiwi, R., Phanus-umporn, C., Malik, A., Schaduangrat, N., Seenprachawong, K., Wongchitrat, P., Supokawej, A., Prachayasittikul, V., Wikberg, J., & Nantasenamat, C. (2017). Exploring the epigenetic drug discovery landscape. Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 12. https://doi.org/10.1080/17460441.2017.1295954

Yam, M. F., Loh, Y. C., Tan, C. S., Khadijah Adam, S., Abdul Manan, N., & Basir, R. (2018). General Pathways of Pain Sensation and the Major Neurotransmitters Involved in Pain Regulation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 19(8), 2164. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19082164

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

Explain the agonist-to-antagonist spectrum of action of psychopharmacologic agents, including how partial and inverse agonist functionality may impact the efficacy of psychopharmacologic treatments.

Foundational Neuroscience

Compare and contrast the actions of g couple proteins and ion-gated channels.
Explain how the role of epigenetics may contribute to pharmacologic action.
Explain how this information may impact the way you prescribe medications to patients. Include a specific example of a situation or case with a patient in which the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner must be aware of the medication’s action.