Skip to main content
. 2022 Aug 17;13:947785. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.947785

TABLE 2.

Representative dopamine receptor agonists and antagonists and their role in the treatment of depression.

Dopamine receptor agonist Representative substance Subjects (Methodology) Effects on depressive-like behavior References
D1R Agonist Pergolide 41 non-demented patients suffering from mild or moderate depression and Parkinson’s disease Demonstrated antidepressant effects in PD patients Rektorová et al. (2013)
SKF-81297 Chronically stressed rats 100 ng of SKF 81297 significantly ameliorate depressive-like behavior Mizoguchi et al. (2002)
SKF-38393 Adult ovariectomized female rats Blocked the antidepressant-like effect Fedotova and Ordyan (2011)
D2R Agonist Cabergoline Male Wistar and Wistar-Kyoto rats Antidepressant-like property Chiba et al. (2010)
Piribedil The placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blinded trial was conducted in 37 patients with Parkinson’s disease presenting with apathy Dopamine agonist piribedil improves apathy in Parkinson’s disease Thobois et al. (2013)
Quinpirole Sprague Dawley rats Delivery of quinpirole into the NAc of control animals induced depressive-like behaviors Qiao et al. (2020)
Pramipexole five RCTs, three open-label trials, and five observational studies, with 504 participants Patients treated with Pramipexole showed improvement in depressive symptoms Tundo et al. (2019)
Ropinirole 32 unipolar and bipolar patients who remained depressed No difference in primary or secondary outcome measures was detected between the treatment and control groups Gershon et al. (2019)
L-742,626 Wistar or Wistar-Kyoto rats Venlafaxine reversed the effect of L-742,626 in controls Papp et al. (2019)
D3R Agonist Rotigotine 48 PD patients Rotigotine improves apathy, depression, and anxiety in PD patients Castrioto et al. (2020)
D4R Agonist PD-168,077 174 transverse hippocampal slices (400 μm) prepared from 87 male Wistar rats D4R activation induces synaptic depression Navakkode et al. (2017)
D1/D5R Agonist SKF-38393 Adult zebrafish (AB wild-type; ∼50:50 male: female ratio at 4-month of age) Pretreatment with the agonist SKF-38393 protects subjects from conspecific alarm substance (CAS, a natural stressor) Fontana et al. (2021)
D1R Antagonist SKF-83566 Forty-nine male Long–Evans rats Administration of SKF 83566 blocked LTP in mPFC and resulted in long-term depression induced by high-frequency stimulation Coppa-Hopman et al. (2009)
Haloperidol seven patients (five men and two women; mean age = 36.7 years, SD = 13.8, range = 26–61) The first description of the efficacy and safety of the SSRI citalopram in combination with haloperidol in the treatment of psychotic depression Bonomo et al. (2002)
D2R Antagonist Raclopride Adult outpatients with depression >59 years old Depression status is associated with lower [[11C] raclopride binding Rutherford et al. (2019)
Sulpiride ten patients and ten age-matched male volunteers Improve depressive-like behavior and may have the effect of increasing dopamine turnover Verbeeck et al. (2001)
Risperidone 16-week randomized placebo-controlled trial for participants concurrently treated with risperidone A combination of Risperidone and Omega-3 improves depressive-like behavior Robinson et al. (2019)
D3R Antagonist 7-OH-DPAT Wistar or Wistar-Kyoto rats Potential anti-anxiety and antidepressant effects Rogóz et al. (2004)
D4R Antagonist L-741,742 Male Sprague Dawley rats Electrophysiological currents were inhibited by DA-D4-receptor antagonist L-741,742 and it was observed in LHb neurons when DA uptake or degradation was blocked Root et al. (2015)
D1/D5R Antagonist SCH-23390 Gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus, n = 130) pups Decreasing dopamine receptor signaling diminishes social learning Paraouty et al. (2021)