Emotions and mood are a small part of the human life, but are complex in the way they are controlled and stimulated. Bipolar disorder seems to be a malfunction in the control of these two processes that is characterized by continual changes in mood, cycling between manic and depressive phases, along with poor control of temper. One way to treat the symptoms of bipolar is to use mood stabilizers to level out the highs and lows and people with bipolar disorder go through. It is believed that these symptoms arise from an imbalance of neurotransmission, consisting of excessive dopaminergic and glutamatergic transmission along with reduced cholinergic muscarinic transmission, and that mood stabilizers attempt to restore proper transmission. Arachodonic acid has become a molecule of interest when looking at mood stabilizing. Arachodonic Acid (AA), is an abundant fatty acid in the brain which helps maintain hippocampal cell membrane fluidity and helps protect the brain from oxidative stress.
Mood stabilizers may be a good solution to cover up the symptoms of bipolar disorder but this idea seems to stop short of the real problem. Some where in the brain, the production, synthesis, reuptake, or release of the neurotransmitters identified above is askew. I believe instead of masking the symptoms of bipolar, researchers should look more into where this imbalance is coming from. In doing this, it would help cure almost all cases of bipolar because the brain could be set to normal settings of these essential neurotransmitters.
Root of Emotions
