What are 'Dopamine Receptor Agonists'?

What are 'Dopamine Receptor Agonists'?

Neal Hermanowicz (Director of the Movement Disorders Program) gives expert video advice on: What are the side effects of Dopamine Receptor Agonists?; What is 'impulse control disorder'? and more...

Dopamine Agonists are in a sense synthetic dopamine. These are medications that are not converted by brain tissue into dopamine, but they try to mimic that action of dopamine in the brain. They go directly to the receptors for dopamine that are existent in the brain and try to stimulate them, mimicking the action of dopamine. They are reasonably effective in alleviating Parkinsons Disease but they are not quite identical to true natural dopamine. Their efficacy or their ability to alleviate symptoms we think is somewhat slightly inferior to Levodopo or natural dopamine.