Posted by anita on January 22, 2000, at 18:53:41
In reply to Re: Buspar: dopamine agonist or antagonist? (Eliz?), posted by JohnL on January 20, 2000, at 1:24:37
Well, I asked my pdoc about this Buspar & dopamine issue, and he said he would say it was more of a dopamine agonist than antagonist (i.e., it generally increases dopamine transmission).
Still confused tho.
anita
> > Does Buspar increase or decrease dopamine, generally speaking? I've seen it labelled as one or the other in Medline -- which is it? If a study says it's a dopamine antagonist, yet goes on to say it increases dopamine in various areas of the brain, does that mean it is an antagonist at dopamine autoreceptors, and thus acts like an agonist?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > anita
>
> Good question Anita. And I hope someone can address this in layman terms you and I can understand. These theories have always evaded me regardless of how hard I try to understand.
>
> In literature I have seen it stated that Buspar "binds to" D2 dopamine receptors. The net effect of that is a mystery to me. I don't know what it means. Does it increase dopamine transmission? Decrease? Raise dopamine levels? Lower?
>
> I have no clue. I hope someone can enlighten us. JohnL
poster:anita
thread:19073
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000112/msgs/19427.html