Identifying the in vivo cellular correlates of antipsychotic drugs

Abstract

Antipsychotics have revolutionized the treatment of mental illness from the 1950s (Hippius, 1989; Shen, 1992). Even today antipsychotics are the preferred treatment for a number of mood disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, severe depression etc. (Blier, 2005; Cookson, 2008; Leucht et al., 2009; McDougle et al., 2000). However, the mechanism of action of antipsychotics still remains sketchy and controversial. The brain areas, neural circuits and cellular targets involved in the effects of antipsychotics need to be better identified.\n\nDrug binding studies suggest dopamine receptor D2 and serotonin receptor 5-HT2A as the prime targets of antipsychotics based on binding affinities (Roth et al., 1994, 2004; Yadav et al., 2011a). Based on the relative affinity for t ...