The atypical antipsychotic quetiapine increases both noradrenaline and dopamine release in the rat prefrontal cortex.

Quetiapine isanovelatypical antipsychotic drugwith multi-receptorial affinity.Using invivomicrodialysis, weinvestigated if quetiapine modulates extracellular noradrenaline and dopamine inbrain areas generally believed tobe involved inthe pathophysiologyof schizophrenia and in the action of antipsychotic drugs. Quetiapine (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg, i.p.) increased levels of noradrenaline in both the prefrontal cortex and the caudate nucleus, while it increased dopamine levels mainly in the prefrontal cortex. It is argued that the marked increase of dopaminergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex induced by quetiapine might be relevant to its therapeutical action.