Dopamine Hypothesis

• Antipsychotics


  Many types which block the activity of dopamine in the brain (they are called dopamine antagonists)
• Effectiveness of different antipsychotics compared to placebo


  1. Meta-analysis of 212 studies by Leucht

  2. All drugs tested were significantly more effective than placebo in treating positive and negative symptoms

  3. Via restoring normal levels of dopamine
• Stimulant drugs such as cocaine and amphetamine have been shown to induce Sz episodes
• Stimulant drugs also affect other neurotransmitters other than dopamine
• Glutamate


  Moghaddam and Javitt have focussed research into the role of glutamate in causing Sz
• Post-mortem and live scanning studies have consistently found raised levels of the neurotransmitter glutamate in several brain regions of people with schizophrenia - McCutcheon
• Temporal issues with post-mortems