Dopamine NeuroTransmitter Testing
October 29, 2006

Steven Rose (The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tommorow's Neuroscience published in 2005 by Oxford University Press), a basic neuroscientist at Open University, UK, reported a study of 5HT (serotonin) levels in psychiatric patients compared with psychiatric nursing staff. Both groups had the same levels, but only the patients reported feeling depressed. Is this a situation involving mirror neurons? Perhaps, from a nonreductionistic perspective, there is no isomorphic relationship between neurotransmitter levels and phenotypic expression, e.g., depression, anxiety, psychosis, etc.

I doubt that 'receptor' psychopharmacology in the future will be as central as it is today. Besides neurotransmitters, there are countless neuropeptides, second and third messengers, neurotrophic factors, transcription factors, proteins, etc. which probably play roles in symptom expression (perhaps as correlates, not necessarily as etiologic factors). Researchers are already exploring the pharmacology of epigenetic processes and gene expression (intracellular processes-the cascade of intracellular events that happen after saturation/binding of receptors).

Psychopharmacogenomics and the study of proteomics are emergent areas.

Sadly, the psychosocial research demonstrating efficacy (sometimes equal to, or surpassing psychopharmacology) in such disorders as severe depression (e.g., the recent research conducted by researchers at University of Pennsylvania & Vanderbuilt), psychosis, panic disorder, OCD, GAD, etc., is not well known.

Brian Koehler
New York University