Dopamine News and Research

Latest Dopamine News and Research

New oral splint can reduce tics in children and adults with Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by vocal and motor tics, which can contribute to anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.

10 Sep 2019

Resistance to 'hunger hormone' linked with cognitive impairments and memory loss

Scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas have found evidence suggesting that resistance to the "hunger hormone" ghrelin in the brain is linked to the cognitive impairments and memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease.

4 Sep 2019

Investigational drug reduces stuttering symptoms in open-label pilot study

A team led by a psychiatrist at the University of California, Riverside, has tested the orally administered investigational medication ecopipam on adults who stutter in an open-label, uncontrolled clinical trial and found that it reduced their stuttering symptoms from the start of therapy after eight weeks of dosing.

28 Aug 2019

Neurological markers in the brain can help detect people at risk for psychotic disorders

Help may be on the way for people who might lose contact with reality through a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia.

27 Aug 2019

Research explains why many psychiatric drugs that work in the lab don’t work in people

Current drug development for neuropsychiatric disorders is in crisis, say experts. More than 90 percent of all drugs that are developed for illnesses like schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), or the brain tumor glioblastoma complete successful trials in mice but then come to a grinding halt in human trials, wasting billions of dollars in drug research. This is partly because of obvious behavioral differences between the two species.

22 Aug 2019

Johns Hopkins researchers reveal why deep brain stimulation improves Parkinson’s symptoms

In a new study of seven people with Parkinson’s disease, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report evidence that deep brain stimulation using electrical impulses jumpstarts the nerve cells that produce the chemical messenger dopamine to reduce tremors and muscle rigidity that are the hallmark of Parkinson’s disease, and increases feelings of well-being.

From Johns Hopkins Medicine 21 Aug 2019

Genetic variant increases risk of addiction in the presence of childhood stress

What causes some people to become alcoholics or drug abusers when faced with stress, but not others? This question has plagued addiction researchers for decades.

19 Aug 2019

MRI scans show how ADHD medication affects brain structure in children

MRI scans have revealed that children taking the medication methylphenidate experience alterations in the distribution of white matter in the brain.

15 Aug 2019

New study explores the effects of cannabis on brain neurochemistry

A new Addiction Biology study provides the first evidence of a blunted response to stress-induced dopamine signaling in the brain's prefrontal cortex in individuals at high risk for psychosis who regularly used cannabis.

7 Aug 2019

Sheffield academic receives funding to protect brain cells affected by Parkinson's

A Sheffield academic has been awarded £100,000 of funding by the Virtual Biotech Programme - the drug development arm of charity Parkinson's UK - to develop a new treatment that could protect brain cells affected by Parkinson's disease, potentially slowing, or stopping its progression for the first time.

6 Aug 2019

Researchers investigate impact of low-salt diets and ketogenic diet

Researchers have developed a novel test that identifies individuals who are the most likely to experience negative health effects if they eat a high salt diet.

5 Aug 2019

Astrocytic MORs in the hippocampus responsible for conditioned place preference

If somebody asks me "are you a coffee addict?" I may say, "Yeah it seems like, but on the one condition, only in my office." I don't have that much craving for coffee at home, but just being in the office, where I used to drink coffee all the time seeking to get caffeine jitters, seems to trigger my caffeine-addicted brain.

31 Jul 2019

Blocking dopamine reduces drug seeking and taking behavior

Blocking dopamine receptors in different regions of the amygdala reduces drug seeking and taking behavior with varying longevity, according to research in rats published in eNeuro.

From Society for Neuroscience 30 Jul 2019

Resveratrol shows promise for anxiety and depression

A new study has shown that the compound resveratrol found in red wine demonstrates stress relieving effects in anxiety and depression. This could be due to resveratrol’s ability to control an enzyme in the brain that is liked to stress say the researchers from the University at Buffalo in collaboration with Xuzhou Medical University in China.

29 Jul 2019