Posted by ed_uk on January 19, 2005, at 7:12:15
In reply to To Ed - The action of AP's, posted by pretty_paints on January 17, 2005, at 15:36:37
Hi Kate! Hope you are well :-)
>Are you actually back at Uni now?
I'm staying in a Hall of Residence at the moment- same one that I was at last year. My uni friends are currently taking their exams but I'm not!! I'll be doing them in August with the resit people if I can manage to motivate my self to do any work this term! Lectures start in two weeks time.
>I was wondering, what is your situation?
I didn't do any work last term so I couldn't sit the January exams. I was sleeping most the time and I just couldn't seem to motivate myself to do anything.
>And what are you being treated for? And what are your meds?
I'm not taking any medication at the moment. Up until recently I was taking lofepramine and citalopram for anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression.
>Anyway, if you have any time to answer I have a little quick question. This week I'm starting on Aripiprazole. I know AP's work by decreasing dopamine levels in areas of the brain where there is too much. But the doc also said that this drug increases it in areas where there is not enough, so basically it constantly modulates the dopamine levels. ANYWAY the question is, is this specific to Aripiprazole do you know? Or do others of the atypicals do the same?
Aripiprazole acts as a dopamine partial agonist whereas the other atypical antipsychotics act as dopamine antagonists.
At the dopamine receptors in the brain, most antipsychotics act as antagonists- this means that they bind to the receptors but fail to 'activate' them. Because of this the effects of dopamine are blocked.
At the dopamine receptors in the brain, aripiprazole acts as a partial agonist- this means that it binds to the dopamine receptors and 'activates' them a little bit.... but not as much as dopamine. As a result, aripiprazole reduces the action of dopamine if a high concentration of dopamine is present, but mimics the action of dopamine in cases where very little dopamine is present. At the moment, there aren't any other antipsychotics on the market that have this effect.
Ed xxx
poster:ed_uk
thread:443237
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050119/msgs/444112.html