Posted by PhoenixGirl on January 24, 2001, at 14:23:15
In reply to Confused about dopamine agonists v antagonists, posted by PhoenixGirl on January 24, 2001, at 14:07:07
I'm confused about this word too. For example, does a dopamine inhibitor inhibit dopamine reuptake, and thus increase it's effects? Or does it inhibit dopamine's effects?
> Does "agonist" mean that a drug increases the effect a particular chemical, and "antagonist" decreases it? Like, what does a dopamine agonist do exactly? I became confused when reading about Amisulpride. I read that it is a dopamine antagonist, but I thought it was an agonist. It's used for schizophrenia, which means it must decrease the effect of dopamine, right? But then I've heard that it increases the effect of dopamine and helps depression. I don't know how it could help depression if it decreased the effect of dopamine.
> Is it a dopamine agonist at low doses, and an antagonist at high doses? I'm really confused.
> The reason I'm asking mainly is that I'm looking for a drug that increases the effect of dopamine in order to help my depression and sexual side effects of desipramine.
poster:PhoenixGirl
thread:52426
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010122/msgs/52429.html