Posted by zuzu80 on August 29, 2004, at 14:24:14
In reply to Role of Dopamine in anhedonia?(chemist, linkadge), posted by Maximus on August 29, 2004, at 13:19:50
> Hi there,
>
> I was wondering how dopamine plays in anhedonia.
>
> To make a long story short, when i take a dopamine agonist like Ritalin, i feel stoned, more detached.
>
> But actually i'm taking Seroquel, a dopamine antagonist, and i feel more alive, more empathetic. I would say that Seroquel awakens something, somewhere in the brain.
>
> Any theories?
>
> Thanks!Hello there,
Medicines can work in contradictory ways. I don't know much about Ritalin. But the fact that Seroquel is an antagonist doesn't necessarily means that it works as such at the dose you're taking (suppose it's a low one???). I use Amisulpride which is also an antagonist of Dopamines D2/D3 receptors. But at the dose I am taking (very low) it has more affinity to presynaptic receptors (called autoreceptors). If these are blocked then the release of Dopamine gets ENHANCED. So this drug has contradictory effects at low/high doses. Maybe it's the same with yours.
Dopamine (DA) is involved with reward and pleasure. If the Dopamine system works optimally then it becomes quite easy to get rewarded, and in fact one can see anhedonia as a difficulty with feeling reward. Here's the connection between DA and anhedonia.
An interesting observation is that Extroverts have a boosted DA system (esp at D2 receptors) and it's believed that the Extrovert gets easily rewarded (such as in social interactions) hence their Extroversion.
Christine
poster:zuzu80
thread:383680
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040825/msgs/383713.html