The effect of drugs altering striatal dopamine levels on apomorphine induced stereotypy.

Drugs that increase or decrease striatal dopamine levels appear to affect apomorphine induced stereotypy. This finding was unexpected, as it has previously been maintained that drugs which exert any action on striatal DA terminals exclusively would affect only indirect dopaminergic agonists, as opposed to apomorphine which induces stereotypy by acting directly on postsynaptic dopamine receptors. Specifically, inhibiting intrastriatal dopamine levels inhibits this behavior. This effect is explained in terms of apomorphine having a greater intrinsic activity and agonist affinity for striatal dopamine receptors than dopamine itself. Thus, dopamine and drugs which promote its release, may diminish the central behavioral effects induced by apomorphine relative to drugs which inhibit dopamine release centrally.