Word: serotonin
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TODAY'S TREATMENTS Most antidepressants work by tweaking levels of various neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry signals from one neuron to another. Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and the other SSRIs slow the absorption of serotonin. Effective antidepressants that act on both serotonin and norepinephrine include Effexor and Remeron. Drugs like Wellbutrin work in a similar way but probably on the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine. The tricyclic antidepressants (such as Elavil and Tofranil) also blocked the absorption of neurotransmitters, especially norepinephrine, but the drugs had significant side effects. Another class of first-generation drugs, the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) such as Nardil...
...When your mind is sexually aroused, the body responds in unmistakable fashion. The effect is even more direct with the 60 or so chemicals known as neurotransmitters, which signal one cell that its neighbor has just sparked and that it should pass along the message. Brain chemicals such as serotonin circulate everywhere, not only in the brain. "Depression really is a systemic disorder," says Evans, "and many of the neurotransmitters that we believe are involved in the pathophysiology of depression have effects throughout the body...
Precisely how these powerful chemicals affect the course of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses isn't well understood yet, but preliminary research has yielded some tantalizing clues. When serotonin circulates in the bloodstream, for example, it appears to make platelets less sticky and thus less likely to clump together in artery-blocking blood clots. For years, heart-attack survivors have been advised to take a children's aspirin daily for clot prevention; such drugs as Prozac, which keep serotonin in circulation, seem to have a similar effect...
That could explain why drugs that improve serotonin chemistry don't always work on depression--and why Parkinson's and depression can feed on each another. Epilepsy, stroke and Alzheimer's, which, like Parkinson's, involve physical alteration of the brain, probably also affect that organ's ability to make or process neurotransmitters--not only serotonin and dopamine but also glutamate and norepinephrine, all of which may be involved in different forms of depression...
...what causes leptin resistance? The answer may turn out to be exceedingly complicated. Not only do the other hormones of the digestive system play a role, but also researchers are learning that they must account for the influence of such mood-altering neurotransmitters as dopamine and serotonin, as well as the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. And then there are melanocortins, brain chemicals whose power to affect weight loss and gain is just now coming into focus...