The process of preventing any mental or physical activity.
Inhibition in the brain and spinal cord is carried out by certain neurons, which damp down the action of other nerve cells to keep the brain’s activity in balance.
In psychoanalysis, inhibition refers to the unconscious restraint of instinctual impulses.
Inhibition means arrest or restraint of some process e?ected by nervous in?uence. The term is applied to the action of certain inhibitory nerves: for example, the vagus nerve which contains ?bres that inhibit or control the action of the heart. The term is also applied generally to the mental processes by which instinctive but undesirable actions are checked by a process of self-control.
n. 1. (in physiology) the prevention or reduction of the functioning of an organ, muscle, etc., by the action of certain nerve impulses. 2. (in psychoanalysis) an inner command that prevents one from doing something forbidden. Some inhibitions are essential for social adjustment, but excessive inhibitions can severely restrict one’s life.
The suppression of monoamine oxydase (flavin-containing amine oxydase). MAO is critical in modifying nerve-ending storage of certain monoamines (in this case, epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine...another type of MAO works on histamines), and MAO inhibitor drugs were, along with tricyclics, the first wave of anti-depressants. The problem was that if you ate brie cheese or chopped chicken livers while taking the drugs you could get a nosebleed or cerebral aneurysm...a double adrenergic whammy, since some foods are also strongly MAO-inhibiting (at least functionally). Although most current manuals (Merck’s and Harrison’s among others) consider these first generation drugs as safer and preferable to the recent Prozac and such, fashion am fashion, with docs as much as patients. Most of the patients a doctor sees are People That See Doctors (most Americans have infrequent medical contact). Some come with clippings in hand, a few find out about new stuff before their doctor does (they only have ONE patient..themselves) and the pressure for gilt-edged newness is hard to resist all around. The only herb I know of with any consequential MAO inhibition is Hypericum, and its effect, although not to be ignored, is less than French semi-soft cheeses.... mao inhibition
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