The role of dopamine in inhibitory control in smokers and non-smokers: a pharmacological fMRI study.

Contemporary theoretical models of substance dependence posit that deficits in inhibitory control play an important role in substance dependence. The neural network underlying inhibitory control and its association with substance dependence have been widely investigated. However, the pharmacology of inhibitory control is still insufficiently clear.

Brain activation associated with attentional bias in smokers is modulated by a dopamine antagonist.

Attentional bias in substance-dependent individuals is the tendency to automatically direct the attention to substance-related cues in the environment. Attentional bias is known to be associated with clinical measures such as relapse or successful quitting in smokers. It has been suggested that attentional bias emerges as a consequence of dopaminergic activity evoked by substance-related cues.

Effects of dopaminergic modulation on electrophysiological brain response to affective stimuli.

Introduction: Several theoretical accounts of the role of dopamine suggest that dopamine has an influence on the processing of affective stimuli. There is some indirect evidence for this from studies showing an association between the treatment with dopaminergic agents and self-reported affect.

Materials And Methods: We addressed this issue directly by examining the electrophysiological correlates of affective picture processing during a single-dose treatment with a dopamine D2 agonist (bromocriptine), a dopamine D2 antagonist (haloperidol), and a placebo.

Nitric oxide and neopterin in bipolar affective disorder.

Background: There is an increasing interest in the role of nitric oxide (NO) and pterines in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. The results so far show an inconsistent pattern.

Methods: In the present study, neopterin and a measure of NO synthesis in plasma of symptomatic and euthymic bipolar affective patients were compared to those of patients with a major depression and healthy controls.

Bipolar mania and plasma amino acids: increased levels of glycine.

Previous studies have suggested that the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor complex is implicated in the pathophysiology of several neuropsychiatric disorders. Especially the glycine coagonist site of this receptor has been proposed as a therapeutic target. It has been hypothesized that the NMDA receptor and the serotonergic system, which function is compromised in affective disorders, are functionally coupled.