What are the most important things to remember about neurotransmitters?
Though researchers have identified dozen of chemicals which appear to act as neurotransmitters, many of them are based on similar chemical structures, and are therefore closely related. Furthermore, although transmitters are more prevalent at certain sites in the central nervous system, most have actions in numerous sites throughout the CNS. Therefore, drugs which alter functioning of one transmitter are likely to induce numerous effects–not all of them desired. Finally, almost an drugs which have psychological effects do so by functionally altering the levels of various neurotransmitters.
