Mouse study sheds light on how antipsychotics work

(© Image: Istock) - Antipsychotic drugs are used to treat and manage symptoms of many psychiatric disorders, but their mechanisms of action remain a mystery. FMI researchers found that antipsychotics reduce long-range communication within a specific layer of the brain cortex — a finding that may explain how these medications work. Antipsychotic drugs are the classic treatment for schizophrenia, but they can have little or no effect for some patients. These medications are known to dampen the transmission of certain neurotransmitters in the brain and reduce delusions, hallucinations and other symptoms of psychosis. However, how exactly they work remains unclear. Matthias Heindorf and Georg Keller measured the neuronal activity of mice as the animals moved on a treadmill. When mice were given a common antipsychotic called clozapine, the communication between neurons located in layer 5 — a deep layer of the brain cortex — was substantially decreased, the researchers found.