Dopamine and willingness to work

[Bibliophile]

Summary of a new study on Dopamine levels and willingness to work. It briefly comments on how ADHD medication that increases the amount of dopamine may be counter productive. Appears in the May issue of Journal of Neuroscience.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/vu-diy042712.php

REPORT ABUSE

[ashockley55]

Wow – very interesting!

REPORT ABUSE

[Wgreen]

Neurology is destiny. It’s sobering to realize how much our behavior is influenced by chemistry—and depressing to encounter so many people who refuse to believe that’s true.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

I have to find the actual article but let me put some context to this: dopamine is a neurotransmitter and yes, it is found in many parts of the brain. However, there are unique receptors that are lodged in the brain that fire different patterns. These different dopamine receptors are not the same all over the brain. For example, in ADHD, we see D4 receptors in the prefrontal cortical area where in Parkinson’s disease we see D2 receptors in the substantia nigra. Both conditions have a lack of dopamine but clearly where they have the loss leads to the unique pathology. In schizophrenia, which is almost the opposite of ADHD, we see too much dopamine at D2 rich receptor areas in the mesolimbic, mesocortical and some other areas. Not the same as either Parkinson’s or ADHD. In other words, the report is making highly simplistic statements of something that is far more complex than they state. Clearly they are trying to arouse curiosity and controversy by being confusing.

So, the use of medications that are used in ADHD increase the amount of dopamine in the D4 receptor areas of the brain where we know ADHD lives and it works. Does it push up dopamine levels in other areas? Surprisingly, no or very little. If you give too much of a medication, then there are problems that may occur in other areas. So within the margins of the doses that are acceptable, the medications get the effect in the part of the brain that needs it because of the unique conformation of a medication and the specific neurochemical receptor they target.

And yes…….love is chemical.

REPORT ABUSE

[Scattybird]

Bibliophile – thank you for posting this. It is great to see up to date research.

Dr. J – thank you for explaining all this so clearly. It is fascinating stuff.

Guess we should all remember that press alerts are designed to catch our attention – especially since (at least in the UK) perceived impacts of research seem to be as important as the research itself in the scrabble for research money. So a catchy press release is apparently a good thing. The truth behind the press release is always more complex – and thank goodness too.

Thankfully we have an expert to guide us through this – thank you!

REPORT ABUSE

[ashockley55]

Yes, Thanks, Dr. J!

And thank you for explaining it so I could understand it!

REPORT ABUSE

[Bill]

Wow, Dr. J!

That sounds like a catchy T-shirt slogan:

Arousing controversy

using confusion

Awesome!

REPORT ABUSE

[cyanojagauw]

Lol, R2D2

REPORT ABUSE

[adhdwife1]

Dr J, how I would love to have lunch with you one day and pick your brain. What you just started talking about is EXACTLY the type of info I’ve been looking for. I’ve been reading through some research on PubMed and looking around the net but there is just sooooo much to suss through.

Do you know of any good (recent) published reviews on ADHD research? Any round tables? Anything that basically expands on specific genes, receptors, etc? I am obsessed with genetics.

It sounds like much more research needs to be done in general. That’s true in most cases though I suppose. I do like the brain imaging studies but feel like we could develop ways to get more out of them. Do you know which specific universities or labs are currenareal earring the charge on this front?

 

thanks Dr J for the info!

REPORT ABUSE

[adhdwife1]

currently leading* is what I meant to say in last sentence… Dang autocorrect

REPORT ABUSE

[Author]

Posts