What Is Dopamine?
Health ConditionsHormones & Metabolic Disorders

What Is Dopamine?

What Is Dopamine?
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Updated on April 21, 2026
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Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger that communicates messages between nerve cells in your brain and the rest of your body. It’s involved in motivation, reward, and many bodily functions, including movement, mood, and attention.

High or low dopamine may play a role in Parkinson’s disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and schizophrenia.

How Dopamine Works in Your Brain’s Reward System

Dopamine is part of your body’s reward system, reinforcing certain behaviors that result in reward. It helps prioritize activities that are necessary for your well-being and survival, like eating food, social bonding, and exercise.

Health Conditions Associated With High or Low Dopamine Levels

Because dopamine is involved in bodily functions like movement, attention, and mood, high or low dopamine levels are associated with many different conditions. Problems in the way the brain uses dopamine may play a role in disorders like Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

Dopamine and Stress

Dopamine also acts as a catecholamine, a type of hormone that regulates various bodily processes, including your body’s response to stress. The other main catecholamines are epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine.

While dopamine is primarily made in your brain, epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine are secreted by your adrenal glands — small organs that sit on top of your kidneys.

Catecholamines are released into your bloodstream when your body is physically or mentally stressed. They cause biochemical changes that activate the “fight-or-flight” response, your body’s natural reaction to real or perceived threat.

The release of dopamine increases your motivation and focus to help you cope with a stressful event.

Dopamine and Digestion

Dopamine plays a role in your digestive system, helping make sure the contents of your gastrointestinal (GI) tract don’t pass through too quickly. It also helps protect your GI lining from inflammation, which is associated with some inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

The Role of Dopamine Receptors

Dopamine receptors are proteins found in your brain and central nervous system. They act as chemical receivers that allow communication between your body’s cells. Dopamine released in your body binds to these receptors, setting off chemical reactions that lead to different effects.

Dopamine receptors play an important role in many neurological processes, including movement and fine motor control, pleasure, cognition, memory, and learning.

Problems with dopamine receptors may play a role in several neurological and psychiatric conditions. Because of this, some drug therapies that treat these conditions act on dopamine receptors.

Dopamine and Addiction

Dopamine is involved in creating feelings of pleasure. Some recreational drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, can cause large amounts of dopamine to flood your system, producing a euphoric effect, or “high.” Over time, this makes your body less sensitive to dopamine, decreasing its pleasurable effects on the brain.

To regain the pleasurable effects of dopamine, you must increase the amount of drugs taken, which can lead to addiction.

Dopamine Drugs

A few classes of medication treat conditions related to high or low dopamine. They each affect dopamine levels in different ways.

Levodopa (L-dopa)

Levodopa is a drug that treats movement-related symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. These symptoms are caused by a loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain.

Nerve cells can use levodopa to make dopamine and boost levels in the brain. Levodopa is used together with another substance called carbidopa, which helps reduce side effects of too much dopamine in the bloodstream.

Several formulations of carbidopa and levodopa exist, which are available as oral pills or tablets, implants, and infusions. They include:

  • Crexont (capsule)
  • Duopa (implant)
  • Rytary (capsule)
  • Sinemet (tablet)
  • Stalevo (carbidopa, levodopa, and entacapone tablet)
  • Vyalev (foscarbidopa and foslevodopa infusion)

Dopamine Agonists

Dopamine agonists are a class of drugs that bind to and activate dopamine receptors in the brain. They mimic the action of naturally occurring dopamine, causing nerve cells to react the same way as they would with dopamine.

Dopamine agonists are used to treat conditions related to low dopamine, including:

Common dopamine agonist medications include:

  • amantadine (Gocovri, Osmolex)
  • apomorphine (Apokyn, Kynmobi)
  • bromocriptine (Parlodel)
  • cabergoline (Dostinex)
  • pramipexole (Mirapex, Mirapexin)
  • ropinirole (Requip)
  • rotigotine (Neupro)

Side effects associated with dopamine agonists include dizziness when standing up too quickly, hallucinations, problems with impulse control, and nausea and vomiting.

Dopamine Antagonists

Dopamine antagonists are a class of drugs that bind to and block dopamine receptors. They decrease dopamine activity, which can help treat conditions associated with too much dopamine, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Many antipsychotic drugs are dopamine antagonists.

Dopamine antagonists can also act as antiemetics, or medications that help treat nausea and vomiting.

Common dopamine antagonist medications include:

  • aripiprazole (Abilify, Aristada)
  • droperidol (Inapsine)
  • metoclopramide (Reglan, Gimoti)
  • olanzapine (Zyprexa, Lybalvi, Symbyax)
  • risperidone (Risperdal, Perseris)
  • ziprasidone (Geodon)

Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitors

Dopamine reuptake inhibitors, also called norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), work by preventing the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine from being reabsorbed by nerve cells. This makes more of them available to your brain.

NDRIs are used to treat:

Common NDRI medications include:

  • bupropion (Wellbutrin, Zyban, Aplenzin)
  • dexmethylphenidate (Focalin)
  • methylphenidate (Ritalin, Concerta)

Enzyme Inhibitors

Enzyme inhibitors slow the breakdown of dopamine in your brain, increasing its availability. They’re typically combined with levodopa to extend its effects.

Common dopamine enzyme inhibitors include:

  • entacapone (Comtan)
  • opicapone (Ongentys)
  • rasagiline (Azilect)
  • selegiline (Zelapar, Eldepryl)

  • tolcapone (Tasmar)

Amphetamines

Amphetamines are stimulants that increase dopamine in the brain through a combination of mechanisms. They treat conditions like ADHD, narcolepsy, and obesity.

Because amphetamines are controlled substances, they’re only available by prescription. Common amphetamine medications include Adderall (combination amphetamine) and lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse).

VMAT2 Inhibitors

Vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) inhibitors alter the way dopamine and other neurotransmitters are packaged, reducing their activity in the brain. They help treat movement disorders, such as tardive dyskinesia, a side effect of antipsychotic medications, and Huntington’s chorea, a symptom of Huntington’s disease.

Common VMAT2 inhibitors include:

  • deutetrabenazine (Ingrezza)
  • valbenazine (Austedo)

Intravenous Dopamine

In some cases, intravenous dopamine is an emergency treatment for life-threatening conditions, such as severe low blood pressure, septic shock, and cardiac arrest.

Dopamine Supplements

Dopamine is made from tyrosine, an amino acid naturally found in food. Some research suggests that eating tyrosine-rich foods or taking tyrosine supplements can help boost dopamine levels in the brain and improve cognitive performance. But larger studies are needed to confirm these effects.

Foods high in tyrosine include:

  • Poultry
  • Dairy
  • Avocados
  • Bananas
  • Soy
  • Pumpkin and sesame seeds

The Takeaway

  • Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. It plays a role in many systems in your body, including motivation and reward, movement, mood, and attention.
  • Normally, dopamine helps you prioritize activities that increase your well-being, like eating, social bonding, and exercise. Problems with dopamine are associated with conditions like Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, depression, and addiction.
  • Several types of medications help treat conditions related to high or low dopamine levels, including levodopa, some antipsychotic medications, and NDRIs.
  • Foods or supplements high in the amino acid tyrosine may help your body make more dopamine, but more research is needed to understand the connection.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
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  14. Parkinson’s Disease Medications. Cleveland Clinic. November 9, 2023.
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