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Psychiatric Implications of Endorphin Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Angus V. P. Mackay
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Extract

The revelation that opium-like substances are constitutional body elements is surely one of the major biological advances of the decade. The notion that the brain contains an inbuilt supply of opioid chemicals has been particularly seductive to the psychiatrist. It seems to offer a key to understanding, and therefore manipulating, the cerebral substrates for somatic pain, drug addiction and psychic discomfort. At a time when research effort in this area is increasing logarithmically, I present here a selective and personal view of certain aspects of endorphin research which have been claimed to be psychiatrically relevant. For detailed accounts of the background and breadth of endorphin research the reader is directed to other more extensive recent reviews (Kosterlitz and Hughes, 1977; Guillemin, 1978; Snyder, 1978; Watson et al, 1979; Hughes, 1979). The term endorphin will be used in the generic sense to include the specific Endorphins (such as β-Endorphin) and the enkephalins (Leu- and Met-)—see figure.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 135 , Issue 5 , November 1979 , pp. 470 - 473
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1979 

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