Dopamine Hypothesis for Schizophrenia

I read where too much dopamine in the brain can cause schizophrenia and too little can cause Parkinson's Disease.

I can't hardly understand all this but I did glean a few points out of it

Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks Hartbroken.
The scientific research is usually too much for me to get my mind around too. From what I can gather, there is quite a lot of discussion suggesting that the dopamine hypothesis is a small part of a more complex picture these days. One aspect regarding dopamine (and there are other neurological mechanisms and psychological & social factors involved too) is the finding that in there is not merely a global over abundance of dopamine in the brains of people with SZ. There is thought to be an excess of dopamine sensitivity in the deep central dopamine pathways in the (subcortical) brain, while there is a general deficit of dopamine in key areas of the cortex (the bulky outer area we call grey matter). So it isn't simply too much dopamine, but an imbalance of dopamine in different areas of the brain. http://pharmacy.utah.edu/medchem/fac...bi-dargham.pdf

One problem with antipsychotic drugs that act by blocking dopamine activity in the brain is that they don't only affect the dopamine pathways that are thought to account for positive psychotic symptoms - they also reduce dopamine activity in other areas of the brain that use dopamine for other functions.
Dopamine and the regulation of cognition and ... [Prog Neurobiol. 2002] - PubMed - NCBI
By reducing dopamine activity in the whole brain, we also reduce its activity in areas that depend on it for cognitive functions and coordination functions - which is not what we want for an overall improvement in functioning for people with SZ.

My take on it is that using dopamine altering drugs is only beneficial if the positive symptoms of psychosis cause significantly more trouble than the cognitive or negative symptoms do.

I'm really looking forward to scientists developing drugs that truly help with treating both positive and negative symptoms without causing other life threatening or quality of life problems.

This is interesting and makes sense. Dopamine is the key to a lot of the reactions in the brain, in particular the reward system. Any thing we enjoy, chocolate cake, sex, and yes even drugs all release more Dopamine. Is it a coincidence that certain illegal drugs simulate schizophrenia? When you use drugs like LSD, and Meth, it tricks the brain in to releasing way more Dopamine then it would normally release. The effects? Well any thing from euphoria up to hallucinations. Add that to the Parkinson's disease which works in the reverse direction! I believe this is a very sound hypothesis, but no doubt there could be more to the story. Great share!