Cited by 1,685Schizophrenia research and treatmentNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

Glutamate receptor dysfunction and schizophrenia

Olney, John W.·1995·Archives of General Psychiatry

Abstract

In this article, we advance a unified hypothesis pertaining to combined dysfunction of dopamine and N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors that highlights N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor hypofunction as a key mechanism that can help explain major clinical and pathophysiological aspects of schizophrenia. The following fundamental features of schizophrenia are accommodated by this hypothesis: (1) the occurrence of structural brain changes during early development that have the potential for producing subsequent clinical manifestations of schizophrenia, (2) a quiescent period in infancy and adolescence before clinical manifestations are expressed, (3) onset in early adulthood of psychotic symptoms, (4) involvement of dopamine (D2) receptors in some cases but not others that would explain why some but not all patients are responsive to typical neuroleptic therapy, and (5) ongoing neurodegenerative changes and cognitive deterioration in some patients. We propose that since N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor hypofunction can cause psychosis in humans and corticolimbic neurodegenerative changes in the rat brain, and since these changes are prevented by certain antipsychotic drugs, including atypical neuroleptic agents (clozapine, olanzapine, fluperlapine), a better understanding of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor hypofunction mechanism and ways of preventing its neurodegenerative consequences in the rat brain may lead to improved pharmacotherapy in schizophrenia.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1001/archpsyc.1995.03950240016004

Cites

99 of 99 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Increasing evidence supports dysfunction of the glutaminergic system as the primary pathophysiological change seen in schizophrenia.

    “In recent years, however, increasing evidence supports dysfunction of the glutaminergic system as being the primary pathophysiological changes seen in schizophrenia [105].”
  • The resemblance between patient contrast response curves and NMDA antagonist effects is consistent with glutamatergic theories of schizophrenia.

    “The decreased slope at low contrast and decreased plateau in patients closely resembles results seen after microinfusion of an NDMA antagonist into cat LGN and visual cortex (16,17) (Figure 3A and 3B), consistent with glutamatergic theories of schizophrenia (23–25).”

    From Visual perception and its impairment in schizophrenia (2008) · cites this paper as [24]

  • The decreased slope at low contrast and decreased plateau in patients closely resembles results seen after microinfusion of an NMDA antagonist into cat LGN and visual cortex.

    “The decreased slope at low contrast and decreased plateau in patients closely resembles results seen after microinfusion of an NDMA antagonist into cat LGN and visual cortex (16,17) (Figure 3A and 3B), consistent with glutamatergic theories of schizophrenia (23–25).”

    From Visual perception and its impairment in schizophrenia (2008) · cites this paper as [24]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Olney, J. W.
Affiliations
Washington University in St. Louis (US)
Corresponding author
Olney, John W.
Venue
Archives of General Psychiatry
Published
1995-12-01
Volume
52
Issue
12
Pages
998
ISSN
0003-990X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2093248761
Cited by
1,685
References
99
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 49 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 52 · 2014: 53 · 2013: 54 · 2012: 62
FWCI
45.32
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Archives of General Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (1r01da006454-01)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA005072, DA07261, DA05072, T32DA007261, DA 06454)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
schizophrenia, NMDA receptor hypofunction, dopamine D2 receptor, psychosis, atypical antipsychotics, clozapine, olanzapine, neurodegeneration, brain development, cognitive decline
MeSH terms
Animals, Brain, Gyrus Cinguli, Microscopy, Electron, Models, Neurological, Schizophrenia, Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate, Receptors, Glutamate, Pyramidal Cells, Rats

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review