hello everyone and welcome to this in-depth session on the neurologic system this is module two um and it will be paired with form May easy modules in your ATI um today we will look into the nervous system how it functions the various medication used to manage neurologic disorders um and understanding the system is one of the most critical um elements for um nurses because neurologic disorders um are among the most complex conditions that you will encounter in your clinical practice um as you remember from your Anatomy classes the nervous system controls everything from movement movement and sensation to thought process and emotions and when something goes wrong like um in conditions such as Parkinson's Alzheimer's um epilepsy or migraines medications play a key role in restoring this bance bance and uh improving quality of life so throughout um this session and uh the next one uh we will break down these medications their mechanisms and the nursing considerations that are Essentials for safe and effective patient care um so by the end of those modules um you will have a clearer understanding of how this drugs interact with the nervous system uh what side effects to watch for um how to educate your patients about their treatments and this will allow you to have uh the ability to provide excellent care to your patients with neurologic conditions so let's look now into the nervous system the structure and function right let's review uh your knowledge uh from anatomy and physiology so nervous system is a highly complex Network that um regulates and coordinates bodily functions allowing bottom line the organism to perceive respond to and interact with their environment primarily we divide nervous system into two main components the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system so let's look into the central nervous system the central nervous system main purpose is to serve as the command center of the body it's responsible for processing and interpreting sensory information and issuing commands it consists of if you remember the brain and the spinal cord with the brain being the most complex organ in the body um made out of billions of neurons that regulate cognitive functions emotions motor control autonomic processes um at its end the brain roughly I'm not going to go into all the details but just to review with you is divided into different regions um we look uh when we describe the brain we have the cerebrum that controls higher cognitive function such as reasoning and memory and speech and voluntary muscle movements we have the the cerebellum that coordinates um uh movement and balance and posture and we have the brain stem made out of midbrain pawns and medula oblongata that they regulate the essential survival function such as breathing heart rate and uh sleep wake Cycles now we discussed the brain also in the central nervous system I told you we have the spinal cord the spinal cord acts as the communication Highway between the brain and the rest of the body um so the spinal cord is actually relaying this motor commands from the brain to the muscles and backwards the sensory information from the body back to the brain um additionally additionally um the um spinal cord it is involved in reflex responses that allow for those rapid reactions to stimulate without the direct Brave involvement um in order to protect the body so we discussed the central nervous system let's look now into the peripheral nervous system the peripheral nervous system is U made out of um all the nerves um outside the central nervous system that connect the brain and the spinal cord to the rest of the body um this part of the nervous system is facilitating voluntary and involuntary functions and as well is divided into um sub two primary um subsystems uh the first of them is the somatic nervous system somatic Soma means um body so the somatic nervous system controls all those voluntary movements and reflex actions and it consists of sensory o or afferent AF afferent neurons that transmit the sensory information such as touch pain temperature pressure uh from the skin muscle and Joints back upwards to the CNS and they have an efferent e uh motor um um part as well that carries the signals from the CN as to the skeletal muscles and allows for those voluntary movements that we are making such as walking grabbing um an object or even speaking so this is the somatic or the body now we have an autonomic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system as it's in its name Will regulate on its own all those involuntary physiological functions U the autonomic nervous system ensures that the all the vital bodily processes continue without having a conscious effort I'm not thinking about breathing and I'm still breathing I'm not thinking about um having a heartbeat and still even when I'm sleeping my heart and my lungs continue to function so this will include functions like I was telling you such as heart rate respiration digestion and glandular activity now to make it even more fun U autonomic nervous system is split again it's divided into two branches two different system we have the sympathetic nervous system if you remember it it's that fight ORF flight uh system that um um responds quickly to emergencies and we have the parasympathetic nervous system that is called the rest and digest response that is functioning when you're um chilling on a on a weekend watching backtack movies so sympathetic nervous system is that system that prepares the body for stressful and emergency situation and because of that because I need to respond um rapidly to an emergency my heart rate will increase my blood pressure will increase to enhance the oxygen delivered to the muscles the pupils will be dilated so I can get more light so I can see better on the other hand digestion and um um saliva production for example are not essential during those times to conserve energy and um also during the uh sympathetic uh reactions there will be uh a release of adrenaline um and all the adrenergic hormones in the um from the glandular system to uh increase the alertness in the response of the body to compare and contrast the parasympathetic that is the rest and digest will promotes relaxation and energy conservation uh will slow the heart rate will lower the blood pressure will increase the digestion will stimulate the saliva for what that matter only because I gave this example before and it will constrict the pupils to return to normal vision conditions um it will facilitate the waste elimination urination defecation all those elements will be uh stimulated by the parasympathetic nervous system so you can see that those two system when one increases the other decreases so they kind of balance each other we do have some uh neuronal communication and neurotransmitters we'll detail them uh a little bit later uh because the nervous system system functions through electrical and chemical signaling uh between those specialized cells um that are called neurons um so let's look into how they communicate I already named two of them the electrical signals uh the nerve impulses that are called um Action potentials travel along the neurons at very high speed if the neurons have uh myelin if they don't have it the conduction it's a little bit slower we don't have a lot of nerves um that do not have a m on them most of them they do um for an increased speed of communication they communicate through chemical signals um those uh chemical signals are um released as neurotransmitters at the level of synapses uh those are the Junctions between neurons that uh transmit the signals from one neuron to another or between a neuron and the muscle or a gland being followed by an action from the muscle or the gland um I will just same here the neurotransmitters we'll detail them um a little bit later so we have acety Coline that is involved in muscle activation and memory we have dopamine that regulates the mood motivation and motor control serotonine that affects the mood appetite and sleep nor epinephrine that plays a role in alertness and the stress response and we have the Gaba or gamma amino butyric acid that inhibits the excessive neural activity to promote relaxation and prevent over stimulation so why it's good to know those neurotransmitters is because in uh when we are discussing medication for um neurologic system a lot of those medication will either increase or decrease the amount of those neurotransmitters depending on the condition and depending on my patient need is if my patient has a need for an increased level of a certain neurotransmitter the medication will promote the release of them um or just the opposite depending on the condition