Past, Present and Future of Dopamine Hypothesis for Schizophrenia / 대한정신약물학회지

ABSTRACT

Many neurotransmitters other than dopamine, such as serotonin, glutamate, etc, have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The atypicality of new antipsychotics has been attributed to the relatively more potent 5-HT2A receptor antagonism compared to D2 receptor blocking action. However, dopamine still seems to be a cornerstone in terms of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and mode of action of antipsychotics. Therefore, we reviewed all the relevant papers about the dopamine hypotheses for schizophrenia and reclassified into 3categories: 1) Regional classification of dopamine hypothesis ; 2) Dopamine gating (filtering) hypothesis ; and 3) Time-course classification of dopamine hypotheis. How they are developed and the implications of each hypothesis will be described in detail. In the future, dopamine hypothesis at molecular or cellular levels will be investigated more extensively though its current status is very primitive.