Dopamine and depression

Abstract

Beginning with the initial suggestion that antipsychotic neuroleptic drugs block dopamine receptors (1), and continuing with the demonstration that the affinity of antipsychotic drugs for dopamine receptors is highly correlated with clinical potency (2,3), and that the density of [3H]neuroleptic- labeled dopamine receptors is enhanced in postmortem brain tissue of schizophrenics (4), the study of dopamine receptors has been inextricably linked with hypotheses for the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs and the etiology of schizophrenia. As described in other chapters in this volume, the role of dopamine in numerous other neuropsychiatric disorders, such as parkinsonism, attention decit hyperactivity disorder, and addiction, has made consideration of the properties of dopamine receptor subtypes important for attempts to provide improved pharmacological treatments for these disorders. This chapter summarizes the molecular cloning of the ve mammalian dopamine receptor subtypes, and reviews their structural, pharmacological, signaling, and regulatory properties. © 2005 Humana Press.