Neuropharmacology of glucocorticoids: focus on emotion, cognition and cocaine.
Hormone pharmacology has been quite interesting in The Netherlands the past century and this contribution is dedicated to the glucocorticoid hormones underlying adaptation to stress. The story starts in 1936 with Tadeus Reichstein and Ernst Laqueur who discovered corticosterone at the time Hans Selye formulated the stress concept. Today highly sophisticated technologies help to unravel the action mechanism of the glucocorticoids from gene to behaviour. In today's concept glucocorticoids coordinate in concert with other stress mediators the initial stress reactions with the management of later adaptations. Glucocorticoids modulate early life programming of stress reactivity and are a significant factor in brain plasticity underlying adaptation, the aging process and vulnerability to disease. Here we focus on the role of glucocorticoids in emotions, cognitive performance and behavioural sensitisation to cocaine.
de Kloet
E Ronald
ER
Division of Medical Pharmacology, Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research and Leiden University Medical Center, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. e.kloet@lacdr.leidenuniv.nl
de Jong
Inge E M
IE
Oitzl
Melly S
MS
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001519:Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011965:Receptors, Glucocorticoid / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000378:metabolism
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D011965:Receptors, Glucocorticoid