Mendoza, Althea Cassandra B.

BSP221E

Neurotransmitters in Schizophrenia

Introduction
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that has affected millions of people (Chatterjee
and Mittal, 2019). This will critique the journal called “Role of Neurotransmitters in
Schizophrenia” by Chatterjee and Bansal in 2021. The authors specified that this was caused
through chemical imbalance within the brain which previous studies showed dopamine has a
vital role that was followed with oxytocin, glutamate, serotonin, and GABA.

With that, this paper has said that the role of dopamine would be the increase in
dopaminergic transmission in the mesolimbic pathway from the ventral region towards the
nucleus accumbens that resulted in positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as
hallucinations while oxytocin could be related to schizophrenia under low levels that lead to
negative symptoms. Low levels of GABA and GABAergic systems are associated with seizure
control while glutamate contributes to the development of prenatal and children responsible
for negative symptoms such as fathering or loss of emotional sense. Lastly, serotonin defect
is responsible for negative symptoms such as degradation or chronicity.

Thus, this also specified possible factors causing schizophrenia such as that the brain
maturation cortex (cerebral) can occur during adolescence stage or early adulthood, onset and
relapse, and therapy efficacy of neuroleptic drugs. There were multiple types of
schizophrenia; (1) paranoid, (2) disorganized, (3) catatonic, (4) undifferentiated, and (5)
residual which was caused through social, environment, genetic, and drug – related reasons.
Phenothiazines and Catecholamines drugs are responsible for the disorder such as structural and
functional abnormalities that can disturb social and academic behaviors.

There are 23 million people that suffer from schizophrenia which this is common in men (12
million) than women (9 million) such as regional distribution of enzyme activities such as
mentally healthy deceased people, chronic schizophrenia patients, and organic brain
syndrome of the patients. Therefore, this has explained that the objectives of this journal
would be obtaining possible involvement of neurotransmitters with schizophrenia which the
information was achieved through a survey.

Summary
As such, neurotransmitters have a vital role in schizophrenia since most journalists discussed
that the abnormalities within dopamine replicators and biological substrates were responsible
for the pathogenesis. Moreover, these receptors can modulate between serotonergic and
glutamatergic in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia since this is followed with oxytocin as
possible treatment and GABA is responsible for sleeping disorders towards patients.

This has argued that the cause of schizophrenia would primarily be dopaminergic
transmission which was responsible for the regulation of movement, attention learning, and
emotional response. Thus, this paper was able to identify the involvement of the
neurotransmitters towards schizophrenia and recognized multiple gaps that investigated the
neurochemical roles.

Critique
Along this were the significant points within this paper such as patients were unresponsive to
chronic psychotic drugs because of the down regulation in serotonergic and glutamatergic
receptors (Shah and Gonzales – Maeso, 2019) since most journalists has specified that
serotonin and glutamate can cause negative symptoms of schizophrenia that could result to
the unresponsiveness towards the medications. As well with the proposal about schizophrenia
as a dysfunction in the left temporal lobe connected to the neurochemicals which the author
did several tests on the brain tissue of people who has schizophrenia before their death that
conclude there were considerable increase of dopamine in the left cerebral hemisphere since
this was specified that the cause of schizophrenia was within the dopaminergic transmission.
Lastly, oxytocin is responsible for treating schizophrenia because of the antipsychotic
potential.

On the other hand, these were the weakest points of the paper due to the uncertainty of the
literature such as journalists had previously believed that GABA might be useful for treating
schizophrenia which inhibits dopaminergic activity, but this was still insufficient due to the
lack of the parameter. Also, authors conclude that serotonergic modulation of the
dopaminergic function can provide a solution mechanism that improves therapies, but this is
still unclear.

This paper expresses points that were relevant in this field and accurate to previous studies
regarding neurotransmitters since dopamine receptors has affected the left temporal lobe that
the proposal was proven through the tests which showed that there was considerable amount
of increase in dopamine (Flor – Henry, 1969).

Conclusion
All this section will be the summary of the whole entire paper which has explored the
involvement of neurotransmitters in schizophrenia and neurochemical aspects within the
brain. This will also determine the definition, factors, symptoms, and effects of schizophrenia
that could establish information regarding the important role of dopamine out of most in
neurotransmitters.

Thus, this will be relevant in the field of neuropsychology practitioners for finding possible
solutions towards this disorder, but this could have been more established as a journal if there
were any implications of possible prescribed medications for the awareness of people towards
psychological disorders. This journal will serve as a reference for discovering possible gaps
and determine the involvement between neurotransmitters and other disorders while the
interference in the brain of the patient will also be included within the paper.

Moreover, people that have experienced this phenomenon do not have the guarantee of
awareness towards this disorder and possible judgment from other people because of this
disorder could be prevented. Therefore, this will be useful for the establishment of effective
medications and solutions to problems that people have experienced in this disorder.

References
Bansal, V., & Chatterjee, I. (2021). Role of Neurotransmitters in Schizophrenia: A
Comprehensive Study. Kuwait Journal of Science.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350696324_Role_of_neurotransmitters_in_schizop
hrenia_a_comprehensive_study