Eating disorders neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry messages, or signals, from a nerve cell to a target cell, which may be another nerve cell or a muscle cell. They may be inhibitory or excitatory and all are nitrogen-containing compounds. The catecholamines include dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. Too little dopamine results in Rarkinson s disease. Too much is associated with schizophrenia. Dopamine is also associated with addictive behavior. A deficiency of serotonin is associated with depression and eating disorders. Serotonin is involved in pain perception, regulation of body temperature, and sleep. Histamine contributes to al-... 

Major depressive disorder, when severe, is characteristically associated with a reduction in appetite, often sufficient to cause significant loss of weight. This is probably related to the alterations in central neurotransmitter activity (particularly that involving serotonin and norepinephrine), which occur in this disorder. Subjects with milder depressive disorder may, by contrast, eat more when depressed and gain weight (see Chapters 7 and 9). Those with seasonal affective disorder , who experience marked seasonal variations in mood, typically have an increase in appetite, and gain weight, in the winter months (see Chapter 8). This, too, may be related to fluctuations in brain serotonin activity (Wurtman 1993). 

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