Abstract
Most psychotropic drugs exert their effects by influencing the activity in monoaminergic systems in the human brain. It is therefore of importance, when discussing drugs and the elderly, to know whether and, in what way, age and dementia disorders influence the metabolism of monoamines in the CNS. In animal exp-eriments, it has been shown that there is a reduced turnover of the catecholamines in the old rat brain (Finch, 1973, 1976; Algeri et al 1976). The activities of tyro-sine hydroxylase (TH) as well as dopamine decarboxylase (DOD) have been ex-amined post mortem in humans and highly significant age declines have been reported (Lloyd and Hornykiewicz, 1970; McGeer, McGeer and Wada, 1971; McGeer and McGeer, 1973; Cote and Kremzner, 1974). Post-mortem studies in man have also shown reduced levels of dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline (NA) related to age (Carlsson and Winblad, 1976; Adolfsson, Gottfries and Winblad, 1976; Robinson et al 1977). In senile dementia and Alzheimer’s disease reduced levels of homo-vanillic acid (HVA) have been found (Gottfries, Gottfries and Roos, 1968, 1969) as well as reduced levels of DA and NA (Gottfries, Roos and Winblad, 1976) when compared with age-matched controls.
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© 1979 J. Crooks and I. H. Stevenson
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Gottfries, C.G., Adolfsson, R., Oreland, L., Winblad, B., Roos, B.E. (1979). Monoamines and their metabolites and monoamine oxidase activity related to age and to some dementia disorders. In: Crooks, J., Stevenson, I.H. (eds) Drugs and the Elderly. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03813-8_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03813-8_17
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