{"id":12341,"date":"2019-10-10T07:20:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T22:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/?p=12341"},"modified":"2019-10-10T07:20:39","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T22:20:39","slug":"agonists-and-behaviour-pramipexole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2019\/10\/10\/agonists-and-behaviour-pramipexole\/","title":{"rendered":"Agonists and Behaviour: Pramipexole<\/br>Dopamine agonists in the treatment of depression<\/font>"},"content":{"rendered":"

An agonist is a chemical messenger that binds to the receptor sites of neurons and activates them to create a response. In this post, we’ll look at how the drug pramipexole is an agonist of the receptor sites for dopamine. Since dopamine has been linked to depression, we can also understand why this might be another option for treatment.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders. According to TIME magazine, around 16 million Americans have depression (source<\/a>). For decades psychologists have been trying to understand the causes of depression so they can develop more effect preventions and treatments.<\/p>\n

But it’s not only the psychologists who are interested – drug manufacturing companies (aka “big pharma”) are also interested as it’s a multi-billion dollar industry. So far, the most common drugs prescribed for depression are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like prozac and zoloft. The drugs increase the amount of serotonin that binds to receptor sites of neurons. It’s a long standing belief that low levels of serotonin is a key cause of depression, which is why SSRIs are so commonly prescribed.<\/p>\n