Norepinephrine, also known as noradrenaline, is both a neurotransmitter and a hormone. It plays an important role in your body’s “fight-or-flight” response. As a medication, norepinephrine is used to increase and maintain blood pressure in limited, short-term serious health situations.
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Norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline, is both a neurotransmitter and a hormone. As a neurotransmitter, it’s a chemical messenger that helps transmit nerve signals across nerve endings to another nerve cell, muscle cell or gland cell. As a hormone, it’s released by your adrenal glands, which are hat-shaped glands that sit on top of each kidney.
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As a neurotransmitter, norepinephrine is made from dopamine. Norepinephrine is made from nerve cells in the brainstem area of your brain and in an area near your spinal cord.
Norepinephrine is part of your sympathetic nervous system, which is part of your body’s emergency response system to danger — the “fight-or-flight” response. Medically, the flight-or-flight response is known as the acute stress response.
As a neurotransmitter in your brain and spinal cord, norepinephrine:
As a hormone, stress triggers the release of norepinephrine from your adrenal glands. This reaction causes a number of changes in your body and is known as the fight-or-flight response.
The fight-or-flight response refers to your body’s response to a stressful situation, such as needing to escape danger (moving away from a growling dog) or facing a fear (giving a speech for school or work). The term comes from the choice our ancestors faced when confronted with a dangerous situation — to stay and fight or run to safety.
During the fight-or-flight response, you (your brain) perceive danger. Next, nerves in an area of your brain called the hypothalamus send a signal down your spinal cord, then out to your body. The neurotransmitter that transmits your brain’s nervous system message of what to do is norepinephrine (noradrenaline). The neurotransmitter noradrenaline reaches the following organs and tissues and causes these rapid body reactions:
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The neurotransmitter noradrenaline also reaches your adrenal gland, which releases the hormones adrenaline (epinephrine) and noradrenaline (norepinephrine). These hormones travel through your blood to all parts of your body. They reach your eyes, heart, airways, blood vessels in your skin and your adrenal gland again. The “message” to these organs and tissues is to continue to react until you’re out of danger.
This is a simple description of the fight-or-flight response. Other parts of your nervous system are also involved, as well as other organ systems, hormones and neurotransmitters.
When used as medicine, norepinephrine is used to increase and maintain blood pressure in limited, short-term situations where low blood pressure is a problem. These conditions could include:
Norepinephrine is usually used with other medicines for the conditions mentioned above.
Norepinephrine is also used to treat:
Side effects of norepinephrine as an injection that require medical attention include:
Health conditions that result from low levels of norepinephrine include:
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Health conditions that result from high levels of norepinephrine include:
People with high norepinephrine levels have a greater risk of heart, blood vessel and kidney damage.
You can increase your levels of norepinephrine naturally by:
Type | Epinephrine (adrenaline) | Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) |
---|---|---|
Neurotransmitter (NT) | Yes | Yes, it’s the most common NT of your sympathetic nervous system; mainly works as an NT |
Hormone | Yes, mainly works as a hormone | Yes |
Part of fight-or-flight response | Yes | Yes |
Made in/released from | Mainly in and from your adrenal glands | Mainly in and from your nerves |
Made from | Norepinephrine | Dopamine |
Works on/action | Acts on almost all body tissues | Mainly works to increase or maintain blood pressure |
When released into bloodstream | During times of stress | Continuously |
Common use in medicine | Severe asthma, anaphylaxis, low blood pressure from severe conditions | Emergency low blood pressure conditions |
Type | ||
Neurotransmitter (NT) | ||
Epinephrine (adrenaline) | ||
Yes | ||
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) | ||
Yes, it’s the most common NT of your sympathetic nervous system; mainly works as an NT | ||
Hormone | ||
Epinephrine (adrenaline) | ||
Yes, mainly works as a hormone | ||
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) | ||
Yes | ||
Part of fight-or-flight response | ||
Epinephrine (adrenaline) | ||
Yes | ||
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) | ||
Yes | ||
Made in/released from | ||
Epinephrine (adrenaline) | ||
Mainly in and from your adrenal glands | ||
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) | ||
Mainly in and from your nerves | ||
Made from | ||
Epinephrine (adrenaline) | ||
Norepinephrine | ||
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) | ||
Dopamine | ||
Works on/action | ||
Epinephrine (adrenaline) | ||
Acts on almost all body tissues | ||
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) | ||
Mainly works to increase or maintain blood pressure | ||
When released into bloodstream | ||
Epinephrine (adrenaline) | ||
During times of stress | ||
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) | ||
Continuously | ||
Common use in medicine | ||
Epinephrine (adrenaline) | ||
Severe asthma, anaphylaxis, low blood pressure from severe conditions | ||
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) | ||
Emergency low blood pressure conditions |
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Norepinephrine is both a neurotransmitter and a hormone, but it acts mainly as a neurotransmitter. Norepinephrine, also known as noradrenaline, plays an important role in your body’s fight-or-flight response. As a medication, norepinephrine is used to increase and maintain blood pressure in limited, short-term serious health situations.
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Last reviewed on 03/27/2022.
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