Dopamine

Dopamine is a chemical naturally produced in the body. In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter, activating dopamine receptors. Dopamine is also a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus. Its main function as a hormone is to inhibit the release of prolactin from the anterior lobe of the pituitary.

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Dopamine can be supplied as a drug which acts on the sympathetic central nervous system, producing effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. However, since dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, dopamine given as a drug does not directly affect the central nervous system. To increase the amount of dopamine in the brain of patients with diseases such as Parkinson's disease, a synthetic precursor to dopamine such as L-DOPA can be given, since this will cross the blood-brain barrier.

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Brain: :For other articles about other subjects named brain see brain (disambiguation). For information about the human brain in specific, please see its article....

Neurotransmitter: Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are used to relay, amplify and modulate electrical signals between a neuron and another cell. According to the dogma of the 1960's, a chemical can be classified as a neurotransmitter if it respects the following conditions:...

Dopamine receptor: The dopamine receptors are a class of metabotropic G-protein coupled receptors with the neurotransmitter dopamine as their endogenous ligand....