Although several therapeutic agents are available to aid in tobacco smoking cessation, relapse rates continue to be high, warranting the development of alternative pharmacotherapies. Nicotine-evoked dopamine release from its presynaptic terminals in the central nervous system leads to reward which maintains continued tobacco use. The ability of indolizidine (-)-235B' and a sub-library of struct...

Agonists of dopamine receptors can lower blood pressure by vasodilation through action on dopamine1 receptors, inhibition of sympathetic nerve activity by action on dopamine2 receptors, or actions in the central nervous system. Fenoldopam, a selective dopamine1 agonist, piribedil, a selective dopamine2 agonist, and dipropyl dopamine, a mixed dopamine1 and dopamine2 agonist, were injected intrav...

Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons play an important role in reward mechanisms of food intake, and VTA dopamine receptors exist on the terminal of glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons and regulate GABA and glutamate release. To our knowledge, there is no evidence to show that VTA D1 dopamine receptors play a role in regular chow intake. In this paper, the effect of SKF38393, a D1 rece...

A new chemical class of potential atypical antipsychotic agents, based on the pharmacological concept of mixed dopamine D2 receptor antagonism and serotonin 5-HT1A receptor agonism, was designed by combining the structural features of the 2-(N,N-di-n-propylamino)tetralins (DPATs) and the 2-pyrrolidinylmethyl-derived substituted benzamides in a structural hybrid. Thus, a series of 35 differently...

Objective: Therapeutic options for Parkinson’s disease mainly consist of L-dopa and dopamine agonists. However, in Japan, the product labeling of the ergot dopamine agonists, cabergoline and pergolide, was revised in April 2007 due to the risk of developing cardiac valvulopathy. Here, we describe the prescribing trends of anti-Parkinson drugs from 2005 through 2010 in Japan, and examined whethe...

BACKGROUND Parkinson's disease patients are more likely to be hospitalized, have higher rates of hospital complications, and have an increased risk of deterioration during hospitalization. Length of stay is an important underlying factor for these increased risks. We aimed to investigate potential medication errors that may occur during hospitalization and its impact on length of hospital stay....

The frontal cortex (FCX) plays a key role in processes that control mood, cognition and motor behaviour, functions which are compromised in depression, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. In this regard, there is considerable evidence that a perturbation of monoaminergic input to the FCX is involved in the pathogenesis of these states. Correspondingly, the modulation of monoaminergic...

INTRODUCTION Hyperprolactinemia is a well-recognized side effect of antipsychotic treatment. Cabergoline, a dopamine agonist, has been introduced on the market to treat hyperprolactinemia, even secondary to antipsychotic use. CASE REPORT In this article, we described two schizophrenic patients who received cabergoline to treat their antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia and developed a sub...

Mirtazapine (MIR) is an antidepressant drug which enhances noradrenergic and serotonergic 5-HT1A neurotransmission via antagonistic action at central alpha2-adrenergic autoreceptors and heteroreceptors. We reported earlier that tricyclic antidepressants administered repeatedly induced adaptive changes in the central dopaminergic D2/D3 receptors. Therefore, we designed our present study to deter...

INTRODUCTION Depressive symptoms are very common in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and have a significant impact on the quality of life. Dopaminergic medication has been shown to have an influence on the development of depressive symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study analyzed two groups of non-demented patients with PD, with and without depressive symptoms, and reported th...