Post by Admin on Feb 17, 2021 13:03:46 GMT
Dopamine Is Key to the Mystery of Metabolic Dysfunction in Psychiatric Patients
neurosciencenews.com/dopamine-metabolism-mental-health-17782/
Summary: Anti-psychotic drugs do not only block dopamine signaling in the brain, they also block dopamine signaling in the pancreas. Blocking dopamine signaling in the pancreas leads to uncontrolled production of blood-glucose regulating hormones, increasing obesity and diabetes risks.
Source: University of Pittsburgh
Why do patients who receive antipsychotic medications to manage schizophrenia and bipolar disorder quickly gain weight and develop prediabetes and hyperinsulemia? The question remained a mystery for decades, but in a paper published today in Translational Psychiatry, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine finally cracked the enigma.
Antipsychotic drugs, scientists showed, not only block dopamine signaling in the brain but also in the pancreas, leading to uncontrolled production of blood glucose-regulating hormones and, eventually, obesity and diabetes.
“There are dopamine theories of schizophrenia, drug addiction, depression and neurodegenerative disorders, and we are presenting a dopamine theory of metabolism,” said lead author Despoina Aslanoglou, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Pitt’s Department of Psychiatry. “We’re seeing now that it is not only interesting to study dopamine in the brain, but it is equally interesting and important to study it in the periphery.”
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that acts as a chemical messenger between neurons and is commonly known to play a role in pleasure, motivation and learning. And antipsychotic medications–such as clozapine, olanzapine and haloperidol–relieve hallucinations and delirium by blocking a subtype of dopaminergic receptors in the brain called D2-like receptors and preventing dopamine molecules from causing neurological effects.
neurosciencenews.com/dopamine-metabolism-mental-health-17782/
Summary: Anti-psychotic drugs do not only block dopamine signaling in the brain, they also block dopamine signaling in the pancreas. Blocking dopamine signaling in the pancreas leads to uncontrolled production of blood-glucose regulating hormones, increasing obesity and diabetes risks.
Source: University of Pittsburgh
Why do patients who receive antipsychotic medications to manage schizophrenia and bipolar disorder quickly gain weight and develop prediabetes and hyperinsulemia? The question remained a mystery for decades, but in a paper published today in Translational Psychiatry, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine finally cracked the enigma.
Antipsychotic drugs, scientists showed, not only block dopamine signaling in the brain but also in the pancreas, leading to uncontrolled production of blood glucose-regulating hormones and, eventually, obesity and diabetes.
“There are dopamine theories of schizophrenia, drug addiction, depression and neurodegenerative disorders, and we are presenting a dopamine theory of metabolism,” said lead author Despoina Aslanoglou, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Pitt’s Department of Psychiatry. “We’re seeing now that it is not only interesting to study dopamine in the brain, but it is equally interesting and important to study it in the periphery.”
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that acts as a chemical messenger between neurons and is commonly known to play a role in pleasure, motivation and learning. And antipsychotic medications–such as clozapine, olanzapine and haloperidol–relieve hallucinations and delirium by blocking a subtype of dopaminergic receptors in the brain called D2-like receptors and preventing dopamine molecules from causing neurological effects.