WHAT IS DOPAMINE? -Chemistry Extra Credit

Anonymous

High School Student

April/May 2026

Dopamine is a hormone and a neurotransmitter that's a vital part in the human reward system. The level of dopamine affects mood, motivation and every emotion of a human. It also decides your thinking, movement and how you react to certain moments. It can be about anything like thinking about your future, doing art and watching a movie. It's that feeling when you’ve achieved something great or did something that makes you happy your brain releases a rush of dopamine. This rush puts you in a good mood and makes you think about everything positively.

But dopamine isn't always a good thing, many mental disorders happen due to an imbalance in dopamine even if it's too little or too less. Schizophrenia is a disorder that is caused due to a dopamine imbalance where a person can experience hallucinations, delusions and psychosis. 

It can be treated with medications but if they don't help with your symptoms of Schizophrenia ECT is used as an option. ECT is electroconvulsive therapy which gives a short seizure, to make your brain work differently. Although Schizophrenia isn't life threatening it can lead to higher suicidal chance without medication. Schizophrenia affects about 1 in 1000 people, it is diagnosed in late teens to early thirties, it tends to emerge earlier in males rather than females.

Patrickson’s disease is another example, which happens when brain cells that make dopamine stop working. While they’ve no cure yet, treatment, therapy and medications can help with the symptoms. A person with this disorder can have difficulties like autonomic nervous system problems, cognitive issues and even trouble swallowing. Although surgery isn't a cure for the disorder from progressing, treatments like DBS(deep brain simulation) which is implanting a device is an option if medications no longer help your symptoms. Unlike Schizophrenia, Patrickson’s disease is common among individuals, an estimated 1 to 1.5 million people live with the condition. It's most likely to develop in the 60's while the reason is unclear and males have a higher risk of developing it than females. Patrickson’s disease can occasionally run in families as a genetic development.