Neurobiology Understanding the Big 6 Neurotransmitters

Dr. Dawn-Elise 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 What are #dopamine, #serotonin, norepinephrine, glutamate, #GABA, acetylcholine? What does dopamine do? 📢SUBSCRIBE and click the BELL to get notified when new videos are uploaded. 💲 Unlimited continuing education CEUs $59 💻 Online course based on this video can be found at ⭐ Specialty Certificate Programs for Case Management and Counselor Certification beginning at $89 Join this channel to get access to perks: NOTE: ALL VIDEOS are for educational purposes only and are NOT a replacement for medical advice or counseling from a licensed professional. Video by Dr. Dawn Elise Snipes on integrative behavioral health approaches including counseling techniques and skills for improving mental health and reducing mental illness. provides multimedia counselor education and CEUs for LPCs, LMHCs, LMFTs and LCSWs as well as addiction counselor precertification training and continuing education on many of the videos on this channel. Unlike other providers like CE4Less, AllCEUs includes a weekly LIVE Stream Webinar with your unlimited continuing education and professional development membership. 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 ~ Excess glutamate is associated with ~ Panic attacks / anxiety ~ Impulsivity ~ OCD ~ Depression 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 Serotonin ~ Mechanism of action/purpose ~ Helps regulate ~ Mood ~ Sleep patterns ~ Appetite ~ Pain Acetylcholine ~ Mechanism of action/purpose ~ In lower amounts, ACh can act like a stimulant by releasing norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA). ~ Memory ~ Motivation ~ Higher-order thought processes ~ Sexual desire and activity ~ Sleep 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 Intro 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