Week 2 Flashcards
Central Nervous System (CNS)
- Brain
- Spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
-All nervous tissue outside the CNS including sensory and motor neurons
Basic functions of the Nervous System
-Recognize, processing, and reacting to changes in the internal and external environment
Adrenergic response
- Activated under stress
- Fight or flight response
- Ready the body for an immediate response to a potential threat
Cholinergic response
- Activated under non-stressful conditions
- Rest-and-digest
- Digestive process promoted: heart rate and blood pressure decline
Autonomic Nervous System: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Divisions
- Produce opposite effects
- Body tries to maintain proper balance of the two (homeostasis)
- Don’t always produce opposite effects
Synapse
- Juncture of neurons
- Includes a pre and post ganglionic neuron
5 Mechanisms by which drugs can affect synaptic transmission
- Affect the synthesis of the neurotransmitter in the pre-synaptic nerve
- Prevent storage of the neurotransmitter in the vesicles within the pre-synaptic nerve
- Influence release of the neurotransmitter from the pre-synaptic nerve
- Prevent the normal destruction or repute of the neurotransmitter
- Bind to the receptor site on the postsynaptic target tissue
Primary Neurotransmitters of the Autonomic Nervous System
- Norepinephrine
- Acetylcholine
Norepinephrine
- Released by most postganglionic nerves
- Class of agents called catecholamines
- Adrenergic receptors
Acetylcholine
- Released by cholinergic nerves
- 2 types: Muscarinic and Nicotinic receptors
Norepinephrine is synthesized…..
- In the nerve terminal
- Requires amino acid phenylalanine and tyrosine
- Can be renewed, recycled, and reused
Acetylcholine is synthesized…..
- In persynaptic nerve terminal from choline and coenzyme A
- In the synaptic cleft is rapidly destroyed by acetycholinesterase
Cholinergic receptors of Ach
- Nicotinic
- Muscarinic
Nicotinic
- In sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions
- -Stimulate smooth muscle and gland secretion
Muscarinic
- In parasympathetic target organs except the heart
- Stimulates smooth muscle and gland secretions
2 types of Adrenergic receptors
- Alpha
- Beta
Seizures
- Abnormal or uncontrolled neuronal discharges in the brain
- Affects consciousness, motor activity, sensation
- Treated with Anti Epileptic Drugs (AED)
Known causes of seizures
- Infectious disease
- trauma
- metabolic disorders
- vascular diseases
- pediatric disorders
- neoplastic disease
- medications
- high dose of local anesthetics
- eclampsia
- drug abuse
- withdrawal syndromes
- sedative-hypnotic drugs
Epilepsy
- Seizures occurring chronically
- Types: partial (focal), generalized, special epileptic syndromes
Simple Partial Seizures
- Olfactory, auditory, and visual hallucinations
- Intense emotions
- Twitching of arms, legs, and face
Complex Partial (psychomotor) seizures
- Aura (preceding)
- Brief period of confusion or sleepiness afterward with no memory of seizure (postictal confusion)
- Fumbling with or attempting to remove clothing
- No response to verbal commands
Absence seizures
- Lasting a few seconds
- Seen most often in children
- Misdiagnosed often (especially in children) as ADD or daydreaming
Tonic-Clonic seizures (Grand mal)
- Preceded by aura
- Intense muscle contraction (tonic phase) followed by alternating contraction and relaxation of muscles (clonic phase)
- Crying at beginning as air leaves lungs; loss of bowel and bladder control; shallow breathing with periods of apnea; usually lasting 1-2 min
- Disorientation and deep sleep after seizure (postictal state)
- May become cyanotic in the face