Treating bipolar disorder: the dopamine system
Professor Wayne Drevets describes how dopamine receptor antagonists can stop mania. Similarly, enhancing dopamine function can enhance depression.
One other type of information that has implicated the dopamine system in bipolar disorder has been treatment effects. So you can actually stop mania in its tracks sometimes by giving a dopamine receptor antagonist, and so that’s one of the ways we’ll treat acute mania clinically. You can also enhance depression by giving some drugs that would enhance dopamine function, and so that would be another sort of indirect type of evidence that this dopamine system may be functioning too low in depression and too high in mania.
bipolar, treatment, dopamine, receptor, antagonist, mania, depression, drugs, wayne, drevets
- ID: 2086
- Source: DNALC.G2C
- Download: Theora Video MPEG 4 Video Windows Media Video
Related Content
2080. Biochemistry of depression
Serotonin is the biochemical most commonly associated with depression. Professor Wayne Drevets discusses other systems including norepinephrine, glutamate, and dopamine.
2223. Bipolar disorder
An overview of bipolar disorder-related content on Genes to Cognition Online.
2084. Biochemistry and neuropathology of bipolar disorder
Professor Wayne Drevets discusses the amygdala, striatum, and prefrontal cortex as neural correlates of bipolar disorder. Mania and depression may link to the dopamine system.
2078. The serotonin system and depression
Professor Wayne Drevets discusses the serotonin system in relation to depression. Drugs that block serotonin reuptake in the brain (SSRIs) are commonly used to treat depression.
2278. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) - Demonstration
Professor Wayne Drevets explains how positron emission tomography (PET) is used to examine biochemicals in the brain such as serotonin.
889. Recycling Antidepressants
Many researchers are finding new ways to use drugs already available for treating depression.
885. Background to Bipolar Disorder
A review of the symptoms, causes, diagnosis, and treatments of bipolar disorder.
1185. Schizophrenia - Typical and Atypical Drugs
Professor Jeffrey Lieberman discusses the differences between typical and atypical drugs that are used to treat schizophrenia.
2082. Depressed learning
Professor Wayne Drevets discusses specific types of learning deficits associated with depression. These may be caused by biochemical impairments in long-term potentiation.
2087. Brain cells and depression/bipolar disorder
Professor Wayne Drevets explains that specific glial cells known as oligodendrocytes may be decreased in the brains of individuals who have bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder.