Posted by med_empowered on October 3, 2005, at 19:53:07
In reply to Re: how to downregulate dopamine autoreceptors? ECT? » iforgotmypassword, posted by KaraS on October 3, 2005, at 18:56:30
up/down-regulation can basically be done by flooding or depriving the brain of a given neurotransmitter. Sooo...lots of dexedrine, after a while, both reduces dopamine firing and causes downregulation as an adjustment to the continued presence of elevated levels of the neurotransmitter in the brain. This is why stimulant withdrawal sucks so much; suddenly, the downregulated brain is deprived of dopamine, and depression sets in (which usually goes away). Contrast this with antipsychotics...there's a definite up-regulation of dopamine there, especially with the old ones, as they adjust to a hypo-dopaminergic environment. This may be one reason for tardive dyskinesia, and its probably the reason for "dopamine supersensitivity psychosis" (ex: a non-psychotic patient given neuroleptic drug X for, say, bipolar disorder, suddenly becomes floridly psychotic on withdrawal; the problem is that her D2 system is super-sensitive to dopamine, and the absence of the neuroleptic is flooding the brain with dopamine, resulting in something kind of like an amphetamine psychosis). I don't think an SSRI would be the way to go for downregulation; the potent impact on serotonin reduces dopamine activity, unless there's a stimulant added. Is downregulation really what you want?
poster:med_empowered
thread:562265
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051003/msgs/562467.html