| REVIEW ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2000 | Volume
: 32
| Issue : 3 | Page : 187-191 |
D2 and 5HT2 receptors: relevance to antipsychotic drugs
RS Karan, P Pandhi
Correspondence Address:
R S Karan
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
The D2 dopamine receptor antagonism of antipsychotic drugs and their ability to upregulate striatal D2 sites are the corner stones of the dopaminergic hypothesis of schizophrenia. The question of the role of D2 receptors in schizophrenia, however, has been reopened by the development of clozapine, which, while being the best known antipsychotic medication has low affinity for most subtypes of D2 receptor class. To explain this atypical action of clozapine, involvement of many other receptor subtypes namely 5-HT2 , D1 , D5 and D4 has been postulated. However, most studies hitherto, have not been able to demonstrate any direct involvement of these other receptor subtypes in the action of atypical antipsychotics. The most popular theory to explain the atypical nature of the newer antipsychotics is, their selectivity for the dopamine receptors in limbic area, as compared to the nigrostriatal area of the CNS. Thus, D2 receptor occupancy measurements still provide the best predictor of antipsychotic response, extrapyramidal side effects and elevation of prolactin levels.
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