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- QUESTION
A thirty-five-year-old male is admitted to a hospital following a minor car accident. He was driving home and fell asleep at the wheel. This is the third accident he has had in the past year. He also falls asleep regularly at work, at the dinner table, at church, and, in fact, anywhere. When he becomes excited or enraged, he suddenly becomes weak and falls. At night, he often has bizarre, terrifying dreams. During these dreams, he feels as if he were paralyzed.
Based on the scenario given above, answer the following questions:
Describe how a nerve impulse is transmitted from one neuron to the next.
Compare the structure and functions of the CNS and PNS.
What is the probable diagnosis for this man's condition?
What parts of the person's brain could have been affected?
What sleep state do these symptoms resemble?
How would an electroencephalogram (EEG) look like during the sleep condition of this patient?
What type of treatments (physical or chemical) would you prescribe for the patient?
| Subject | Nursing | Pages | 3 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Describe the nerve impulse transmission from one neuron to the other.
A neuron receives an impulse and passes it to another through its dendrites. The dendrite picks up an impulse through a chain of chemical events, and the impulse is shuttled through the axon of the neuron and get transmitted to the next neuron by action potential of sodium and potassium ions (Bacq, 2013). During this transmission, the stimulus induces the action potential by depolarizing the cell membrane leading to the opening of sodium ion channels. This increases Na+ ions inside the cell causing the cell to be hyperpolarized as potassium ions leave the cell (Bacq, 2013). This makes the action potential to move down the axon of the neuron as the membrane of the axon get depolarized and repolarized thus transmitting the impulse from one neuron to another.
The structural and functional comparison of the CNS and PNS.
The peripheral nervous system and the central nervous system are structurally and functionally different in some ways. Structurally, the central nervous system is located in the meninges and constitutes the spinal cord and the brain while the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) exists and extends outside the Central Nervous System (Evans, Brown, Ransom, 2013). Moreover, Central Nervous System is located safely within the dorsal cavity protected by the skull while the Peripheral Nervous System remains open to any mechanical injury because it is not protected by any bone or blood-brain barrier. On the other hand, the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system are functionally different. The Peripheral Nervous System functions to integrate important information and details about external stimuli while the Central Nervous System functions to process all these gathered information (Evans, Brown, Ransom, 2013). Also, the Central Nervous System functions to communicate all sorts of involuntary information. On the other hand, the Peripheral Nervous System functions to communicate all the voluntary information. Moreover, the Peripheral Nervous System plays a role in the regulation of body temperature, blood pressure, and thirst while the Central Nervous System plays no role in this context.
What is the probable diagnosis for this man's condition?
The probable diagnosis of the man's condition is a chronic brain disorder called Narcolepsy.
What parts of the person's brain could have been affected?
The hypocretin-containing brain cells could have been affected.
What sleep state do these symptoms resemble?
These sleep symptoms resemble the sleep state called Parasomnias.
The look of an electroencephalogram (EEG) during the sleep condition of this patient.
The electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern would resemble that of a drowsy state.
The type of treatments I would you prescribe for the patient.
I would prescribe the central nervous system alerting agents (like modafinil and amphetamine) and antidepressant drugs to reduce the incidences of sleep attacks.
References
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Bacq, Z. M. (2013). Chemical transmission of nerve impulses: a historical sketch. Elsevier.
Evans, R. D., Brown, A. M., & Ransom, B. R. (2013). Glycogen function in adult central and peripheral nerves. Journal of neuroscience research, 91(8), 1044-1049.
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