Dopamine dysregulation

Dopamine dysregulation and altered energy metabolism are established features of schizophrenia individually linked to illness severity but also exhibiting a complex mutual relationship. How these two facets of the underlying pathophysiology contribute to the varied symptoms of the disorder is still not well understood. Given the likely systemic nature of schizophrenia, we hypothesized that combined measures of dopamine and metabolic function would prove better correlates for relevant psychopathology than either of the measures alone.This possibility was investigated in a previously published d

Parkinson's disease (PD), characterized by the absence of dopamine in the striatum[1], is caused by the death of the substantia nigra pars compacta dopamine (SNcDA) neurons in the mid-brain. The cause of this cell loss is attributed to irreparable damage due to a dysregulation cascade originating from excess cytosolic dopamine[2]. However, it is unresolved if dopamine dysregulation in SNcDA neurons themselves is the cause of PD or if it is a mere symptom. Here, we introduce a theory of specialized non-causal action potentials that serve metabolic homeostasis called `metabolic spikes' which can