Category: N

A dyssomnia consisting of irresistible attacks of refreshing sleep during the day, cataplexy (sudden bilateral loss of muscle tone) typically associated with intense emotion, and recurrent intrusions of rem sleep into the transition between sleep and wakefulness. Uncontrollable, recurrent, brief episodes of sleep associated with excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexp, sleep paralysis, hppnagogic hallucinations, and often…

In Heinz Kohut’s (1913–1981) self psychology, aggression in a person reacting to breakdowns in crucial self-serving mental images that have been revealed to be false. Two examples of conditions that can provoke such behavior are deflation of infantile grandiosity or traumatic disappointment in idealized figures. The aggression may range from mild annoyance to intense and violent…

Self-love as opposed to object-love (love of another person). To be distinguished from egotism, which carries the connotation of self-centeredness, selfishness, and conceit. Egotism is but one expression of narcissism. Revisions in psychoanalytic theory (self psychology) have viewed the concept of narcissism in less pathological terms. Excessive self-love. Sexual excitement through admiration of one’s own…

Brand name (now discontinued) for the opioid antagonist drug naloxone. A commercial preparation of naloxone.  

Brand name for the NMDA receptor antagonist drug memantine.  

An opioid antagonist medication used to facilitate maintenance of abstinence after heroin or alcohol detoxification. Marketed under the brand names revia and vivitrol; may also be known by the discontinued brand name depade. A narcotic antagonist. Oral agent that antagonizes the actions of opiates, used to aid former drug addicts in remaining opiate-free in their…

A potent, short-acting competitive antagonist of mu-opioid receptors in the central nervous system (CNS) with no agonistic effects of its own; the drug of choice in the treatment of narcotic overdose. Naloxone rapidly reverses the toxic and clinical effects of opiates, including respiratory depression, hypotension, and sedation, but it also produces rapid withdrawal symptoms. Its…

A substance that destroys nerve tissue. A substance that is poisonous or destructive to nerve tissue. Toxin, found in the venom of certain snakes, in some fish, shellfish, and bacteria, and in certain other organisms, that is toxic to nervous tissue. A substance that damages nerve tissue. The principal effects of a neurotoxin are paralysis,…

Referring to actions or nutrients that tend to protect nerve cells from damage or degeneration. An agent that protects or prevents damage to the nerves. Providing a certain level of safeguard to the nervous system against potential harm or injury.