Anti-psychotic drugs The anti-psychotic drugs, e.g. haloperidol and chlorpromazine, comprise a large group of drugs that are used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia [ l ] . The principal therapeutic effect of the drugs is on the positive (psychotic) symptoms of the disorder, although some drugs, e.g. clozapine, are claimed to have effects on the negative symptoms. After the discovery of dop...

A frequent topic of discussion among research clinicians and other scientists engaged in basic psychiatric research is the extent of real advances in approaches to drug therapy in psychiatry. After the serendipitous discovery of some major avenues of drug treatment for psychiatric disorders in the 1950s, a wide range of prescription drugs became available for treating mood disorders and schizop...

Since the neural impulses in the brain are transmitted from one neuron to the next by various chemical mediators such as noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, etc., the use of drugs acting specifically on one or more of these mediators should illucidate the chemical substrates of behavior. However, recent data indicating an extensive interaction between the various neurotransmitter...

The goal of the meeting is to bring together researchers from diverse fields who are interested in the role that infectious agents and the immune response may play in the etiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Subjects to be discussed include: *viral models of CNS functional pathology othe effects of infectious agents on dopamine, serotonin and other neurotransmitters aviruses as trig...

A drug acting at metabotropic glutamate receptors has recently been reported to be an effective antipsychotic, breaking the rule that only dopamine receptor-blocking drugs have this property. The finding complements accumulating evidence that glutamatergic abnormalities are important in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Multivalent ligands are promising pharmacological tools that may be more efficacious for several diseases than highly selective single-target drugs. A combined therapy using dopaminergic agonists and adenosinergic antagonists is currently being evaluated for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. [(a) Kanda, T.; et al. Exp. Neurol. 2000, 162, 321-327. (b) Jenner, P. Expert Opin. Invest. Drugs 20...

Drugs acting at dopamine D2 receptors (D2R) are commonly used to alleviate symptoms produced by diseases such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and depression. A limitation to the use of these drugs is that they sometimes afflict patients with severe side effects. This review discusses recent evidence for several proteins that represent novel mediators of the downstream consequences of D2R...

Recent attempts to explain acute psychotic behaviour in terms of disordered cerebral neurotransmitter function have largely concerned the monoamines, serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline (Crow, 1978). Most prominent among these endeavours is the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, which in its current form proposes that the 'positive' symptoms of acute schizophrenia (or Schneider first-rank ...

T spectives on this issue tend to define this term differently. To a pharmacologist, it can mean “serotonin-2A (5-HT2A)–dopamine-2 (D2) antagonist” or “multiple simultaneous neurotransmitter binding activities.” To a prescriber, it can mean “low extrapyramidal symptoms” or “reduction of negative symptoms.” To a marketeer, it may mean “new and different.” To a formulary committee with a short-te...

The basal ganglia are affected by several neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, many of which are treated with drugs acting on the dopamine system. For instance, the loss of dopaminergic input to the striatum, which is the main pathological feature of Parkinson's disease, is counteracted by administering the dopamine precursor, L-DOPA. Furthermore, psychotic disorders, including schi...