Poisoning with calcium channel blockers and beta blockers are associated with high mortality and morbidity rates, especially in children. Treatment of poisoning with these drugs includes administration of atropine, glucagon, calcium and inotropic agents as clinically needed; and newer approaches like hyperinsulinemic euglycemia and intravenous lipid emulsion therapies. We herein present two ref...

The pharmacologic management of schizophrenia has dramatically improved over the past 50 years. While the first-generation, or conventional, antipsychotic medications were found to be helpful in reducing the positive symptoms of the disorder, they had little effect on negative and cognitive symptoms. Additionally, the first-generation agents were associated with the troubling neurologic side ef...

Individuals with schizophrenia are often treated with medications that block dopamine (DA) neurotransmission. Chronic administration of many DA antagonists alters dopaminergic function, causing a supersensitivity to DA agonists. Because the DA agonist properties of cocaine seem to be involved in its behavioral effects, chronic DA antagonist treatments may enhance these effects of cocaine. This ...

The dopamine receptor blocker pimozide attenuated lever-pressing and running for food reward in hungry rats. In each case the characteristic behavior of pimozide-treated rats was the same as that of undrugged rats when reward was simply withheld. Drug-induced performance difficulties were ruled out by the presence of periods of normal responding in drug-treated animals. Pimozide appears to sele...

BACKGROUND Reduced mismatch negativity and P3a amplitude have been suggested to be among the core deficits in schizophrenia since the late 1970s. Blockade of dopamine D2 receptors play an important role in the treatment of schizophrenia. In addition, there is some evidence indicating that deficits in mismatch negativity and P3a amplitude are related to increased dopaminergic activity. This is t...

Either 5-HT2A antagonism or fast dissociation from D2 receptors may define an atypical antipsychotic. To have little or no motor symptoms from an antipsychotic, it is clear that D2 receptor binding in the striatum must be less than that caused by conventional antipsychotics. Pure 5-HT2A antagonism by itself does not result in robust antipsychotic actions. However, 5-HT2A antagonism can reduce D...

Research on Parkinson's disease has led to new hypotheses concerning the mechanisms of neurodegeneration and to the development of neuroprotective agents. Recent findings of impaired mitochondrial function, altered iron metabolism and increased lipid peroxidation in the substantia nigra of parkinsonian patients emphasize the significance of oxidative stress and free radical formation in the pat...

G J. Chandran and associates, in their report of a case of neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS), describe an 81-year-old man who was given 2 dopamine D2 blocking agents, with a total daily dose roughly equivalent to 9 mg of haloperidol, a very high dosage for someone this age. Within 3 days, one of these drugs was stopped, but the dosage of the other was increased. Although we do not know exact...

Dopamine plays a number of important physiological roles. However, activation of dopamine receptor type-5 (DR5) and its effect in renal epithelial cells have not been studied. Here, we show for the first time that DR5 is localized to primary cilia of LLCPK kidney cells. Renal epithelial cilia are mechanosensory organelles that sense and respond to tubular fluid-flow in the kidney. To determine ...