A Franco-American team has discovered the cellular mechanism that causes the tremors that often accompany taking antipsychotics.
Psychiatric disorders are not easily treated, and the side effects of medications are often severe. Treatments for neuropsychiatric diseases like schizophrenia sometimes cause involuntary movements and uncontrollable tremors, parkinsonism. If the victims present the characteristics of Parkinson’s disease, their condition is reversible, and the tremors stop after discontinuation of treatment. The syndrome is no less disabling.
A Franco-American team may have found the beginnings of an answer for these patients doubly handicapped by their disease. In an article published in Neuron, researchers from Inserm and the University of California at Irvine (United States) claim to have identified the origin of these tremors, and believe that it would be possible to suppress them.
A story of dopamine
They have shown in mice that these side effects result from antipsychotics blocking a neuronal dopamine receptor called D2.
The control of motor skills, which depends on a balance between this neurotransmitter and acetylcholine, is then disturbed. The excessive influx of acetylcholine causes dysfunctions: catalepsy in mice, which is equivalent to tremors in humans.
A treatment track
“These observations clarify the hitherto unknown mechanism for triggering motor side effects of antipsychotics,” explains Emiliana Borrelli, Inserm research director at the University of California. They will help in the future development of drugs without side effects. “
“They also generate important information for combination therapies, that is, the use of drugs that block not only the D2 receptor but also the acetylcholine receptors, which could be used to improve the lives of patients. treated with antipsychotics, ”she adds.
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