title: Dopamine receptor polymorphisms and drug response in schizophrenia.
abstract: The elucidation of the assumed genetic contribution to the predisposition towards schizophrenia is a scientifically challenging enterprise with considerable impact on therapeutic possibilities. A pharmacogenetic approach, targeted to the clinical response to medication, provides a promising alternative as a means of investigation, with the prospect of gaining knowledge about the disease and of developing an individually tailored medical treatment. This review will focus on dopamine receptor genes which have, due to the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, been a prime target in pharmacogenetic studies of schizophrenia. The current status of the studies results will be displayed and future prospects will be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinik für Psychiatrie, Abteilung für Allgemeine Psychiatrie, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Wien, Austria. joachim.scharfetter@akh-wien.ac.at
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scharfetter
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010597:Pharmacogenetics; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011954:Receptors, Dopamine / Q000235:genetics*; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000235:genetics; D050637:Receptors, Dopamine D3; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: C493593:DRD3 protein, human; C493599:DRD4 protein, human; D011954:Receptors, Dopamine; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2; D050637:Receptors, Dopamine D3; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4