True behavior of the 'pleasure molecule' will reshape how we treat psychiatric diseases and addictio

Pioneering research shows that dopamine levels increase in response to stressful stimuli, and not just pleasurable ones, potentially rewriting facts about the "feel-good" hormone -- a critical mediator of many psychiatric diseases. This discovery is cause to rethink treatment for psychiatric disease and addiction.

This research was led by Erin Calipari, assistant professor of pharmacology, and Munir Gunes Kutlu, a postdoctoral fellow in Calipari's laboratory.

"In the press, dopamine is often referred to as a 'pleasure molecule' or a 'reward molecule,'" said Calipari, who also is a faculty member of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute and the Center for Addiction Research. "In the scientific community, research has helped us understand that dopamine's role in learning and memory is more complex than that, but we did not have a complete and accurate theory that could explain what dopamine actually does in the brain."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210916131312.htm