Dopamine & The Brain

Other Functions

Dopamine is implicated in many aspects of nervous system regulation.

• It is linked to other disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, in which dopamine activity is reduced in the cerebellum and striatum producing a variety of symptoms (including the characteristic shuffling gait), as well as ADHD, drug dependence and other forms of psychosis.
• It is used as a therapeutic agent that acts on the sympathetic nervous system, causing an increased heart rate and blood pressure.
• However, it cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, and so is prescribed as a pro-drug for Parkinson’s called levodopa (L-DOPA) so that it can access the central nervous system and relieve the symptoms of the disease.