Psychoneuroendocrinology is a discipline of science. It deals with the importance of hormones for mental characteristics and functions. It looks at the reciprocal relationship between experience and behavior, which in turn are contrasted with endocrine functions, that is, the hormone glands that release their product into the blood. Thus, this discipline has relevance to other areas of psychology and is mutually dependent.
What is psychoneuroendocrinology?
Psychoneuroendocrinology deals with the importance of hormones for psychological characteristics and functions. Hormones control many physical and psychological processes in the human organism. These include nutrition, metabolism, growth, development, reproduction, maturation, and performance. Related to these processes are pain, emotion, sexuality, hunger, or need for sleep; therefore, psychoneuroendocrinology studies mechanisms of environmentally induced or genuine changes in human well-being and behavior, reactions, personality differences, and the patterns of response in character and stimulus that follow. Hormonal functions and the human psyche interact with each other. As soon as hormonal changes take place, a physical reaction takes place. The same happens in the opposite direction. In the field of psychoneuroendocrinology, there are two ways to gain knowledge in these areas. One is to study the manipulation of hormones, and the other is to study the manipulation of psychological processes. Hormones are manipulated through stimulation, application, and blockages. Once a change occurs, the effects on the psychological process must be studied. This is also investigated by means of animal experiments, e.g. to obtain physical or chemical inactivations of such nerve pathways that are responsible for hormone regulation. The opposite direction, e.g. stress, psychological strain, performance striving, sleeping, sexual or eating behavior, likewise positive feelings and stimulations, can be recorded in the hormonal change and a connection can be established via this.
Treatments and therapies
Such studies revealed examples such as children growing up in a stressful home whose development and behavior were severely disturbed, among them such children were small in stature or suffered from complete apathy. One theory is that the child suffers from insomnia due to the circumstances and stress in the parental home. The lack of deep sleep phases in turn leads to a lack of or too little release of growth hormones. This shows that every kind of stress has an influence on the hormone level, including sensory thresholds, deep sleep phases, general sleep behavior and performance pressure. A distinction is made between a specifically organized influence of all hormones in the development of the human organism and an activating-mobilizing influence, which always has an effect in the course of life. Likewise, in addition to the experiments that take place, there are also studies of the correlations on a correlative basis with regard to the condition and behavior of the human being. Thus, in addition to different times of the day, cycle phases of women or pregnant women, life circumstances or general health have an influence on hormone levels, also people who have mental disorders differ from healthy people. They suffer from anxiety, depression or impulse control disorders and thus exhibit altered hormone levels. Psychological processes and human development regulate hormone secretion, and hormones in turn control perception and behavior. Especially in the area of addictive behavior, neuroendocrine systems play a role. For example, stress can cause alcohol dependence and relapse or influence or increase smoking behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology examines stress and stress responses following specific stimuli and classifies them into stress type, predictability, novelty, and controllability. The behavior of hormones and the stress coping experience of humans are compared in order to crystallize changes in the hormonal system. For this purpose, experiments are conducted with, for example, exercises in mental arithmetic or giving a lecture, showing arousing films or physical stress factors such as exertion, cold, heat or pain. The hormonal patterns often resemble each other, especially visible as a hormonal increase with stronger stress factors. In contrast, e. g.B. Disgust does not cause an increase. Likewise, events are included in the studies that extend over a longer period of time and have critical life events, including long-term unemployment, death or illness of relatives, or relationship problems and divorce. The stress factor is an important research approach in terms of hormone release in the body and the interdependent response patterns between psychological or physical reaction and hormone levels. Hormones affect the neural circuitry, influencing thinking, behavior, and emotions. A stress-reducing reduction in hormones is also an energy-saving response. Increased stress conditions and strong physical stress in turn lead to a high release of reproductive hormones. Positive stimuli, in turn, or feelings arising from such experiences, have not yet been adequately explored. Initial results show that there is a link between hormonal responses and pleasant feelings. Also, peak physical performance not only leads to the release of endorphins and triggers euphoria, but can also have an analgesic effect through this very release. However, the effects are much smaller than strain and stress events, which in turn makes them more difficult to study.
Diagnosis and methods of investigation
Beyond the everyday realm, however, psychoneuroendocrinology also serves as a basic research tool for neurological and psychological disorders. The study of hormones and internal and external influences offers insights and therapeutic options for anxiety neuroses, affective disorders, schizophrenia, dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and various sleep disorders. As an example, findings have been collected in the field of schizophrenia that hormone secretion differs in relation to the disease in a gender-specific manner, e.g., female sex hormones positively influence the course of the disease. It is known that schizophrenia starts later in women than in men and does not have as many negative symptoms, as well as rarely structural abnormalities in the brain. Research in the field of psychoneuroendocrinology has demonstrated that these conditions are triggered by female sex hormones, including the influence of estrogens, which modulate the activity of dopamine receptors. Estrogens favorably affect the function of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and trigger an antipsychotic effect.
