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So, how do medications for schizophrenia work? Well, there are a couple of main mechanisms
that we are aware of. One is dopamine blockade, and so we know that many of the medications,
especially the older ones, are good at blocking the dopamine in parts of the brain, the part
we call the mesolimbic area, which is primarily in the temporal lobe. And that reduces some
of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia in particular.
There's also an implication of serotonin receptors. Serotonin actually may be involved in reducing
some of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, so the lack of motivation, the lack of affect
and depressive symptoms that often go along with schizophrenia as well. Many of our medications
have effects on a lot of different receptors, and so each of them has a slightly different
profile depending on which receptors they affect. We still have a lot to learn, though,
about how these medication work and how best to use them to help people with schizophrenia
recover fully.