Psychiatria pre prax 3/2015

Partial dopamine agonism as a next antipsychotic generation concept?

Dopamine partial agonists, as an antipsychotic compounds, symbolise an interesting therapeutic advance in psychopharmacology, which is different from dopamine antagonists. The pharmacological action of aripiprazole and other new drugs have nowadays been more specifically hypothesized as depending on functional selectivity at dopamine receptors, which in some circumstances may have the properties of partial agonism at dopamine receptors and of a dopamine stabilizer in the synapse. Therefore several aripiprazole like compounds have been considered as an exceptional functionally selective ligand – drug that may show different intrinsic activity at diverse receptor classes in the synapse, or that may cause numerous functional effects, even when interacting with the identical receptor.

Keywords: dopamine partial agonists, mechanism of action, functional selectivity, dopamine stabilizers.