Talk:Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia

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[edit] Chicken & Egg

Isn't there a possibility that there is a chicken and egg problem. Is the dopamine activity the cause or the effect of the psychosis? Has this been explored?--Jack Upland 06:14, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Well dopamine antagonism seems to relieve some of the 'positive' symptoms suggesting that the dopamine activity (if you believe in the dopamine hypothesis) underlies the psychosis to some degree. Whether the dopamine dysfunction is secondary to some other disease process or neurological change is difficult to say, since it would require having studied people's brains before they were symptomatic, which is a very large undertaking if you expect only around 1% of people to develop it. --Coroebus 20:48, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article needs re-balancing after addition of Seeman et al refs

This article has been recently edited to include a great deal of research by Philip Seeman. The major changes were here, by Seemanph, so I presume they were done by the author of the research himself.

Consequently, the article needs re-balancing, as it is currently quite one-sided.

- Vaughan 13:47, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Which side is under-represented? Davis, 213.51.99.242 23:22, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

There's no 'chicken and egg' debate. Anything which increases the amount of dopamine also exacerbates the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Prolonged use of both cocaine and amphetamine increase dopamine and can cause schizophrenia-like symptoms in people who have no predisposition to the condition. In people predisposed to developing schizophrenia, quite small amounts of these drugs will exacerbate positive symptoms. Dopamine is made from the amino acid, tyrosine. Taking supplemental tyrosine will exacerbate positive symptoms, at least initially. I found the article to be an excellent and concise overview of the subject. William Davidson 25th November 2006

However, it is not clear that every psychotic experience is linked to increased dopamine release (ref the work on NMDA receptor antagonist induced psychosis that is not reverse by antipsychotics) - Vaughan 23:46, 10 December 2006 (UTC)