Cited by 242Multiple Sclerosis Research StudiesParkinson's Disease Mechanisms and TreatmentsFibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research

The dopamine imbalance hypothesis of fatigue in multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders

Open access
Dobryakova, Ekaterina, Genova, Helen M., DeLuca, John, Wylie, Glenn R.·2015·Frontiers in Neurology

Abstract

Fatigue is one of the most pervasive symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), and has engendered hundreds of investigations on the topic. While there is a growing literature using various methods to study fatigue, a unified theory of fatigue in MS is yet to emerge. In the current review, we synthesize findings from neuroimaging, pharmacological, neuropsychological, and immunological studies of fatigue in MS, which point to a specific hypothesis of fatigue in MS: the dopamine imbalance hypothesis. The communication between the striatum and prefrontal cortex is reliant on dopamine, a modulatory neurotransmitter. Neuroimaging findings suggest that fatigue results from the disruption of communication between these regions. Supporting the dopamine imbalance hypothesis, structural and functional neuroimaging studies show abnormalities in the frontal and striatal regions that are heavily innervated by dopamine neurons. Further, dopaminergic psychostimulant medication has been shown to alleviate fatigue in individuals with traumatic brain injury, chronic fatigue syndrome, and in cancer patients, also indicating that dopamine might play an important role in fatigue perception. This paper reviews the structural and functional neuroimaging evidence as well as pharmacological studies that suggest that dopamine plays a critical role in the phenomenon of fatigue. We conclude with how specific aspects of the dopamine imbalance hypothesis can be tested in future research.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fneur.2015.00052

Cites

95 of 95 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

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?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Dobryakova, E., Genova, H. M., DeLuca, J., & Wylie, G. R.
Affiliations
  • Kessler Foundation (US)
  • United States Department of Veterans Affairs (US)
Corresponding author
Dobryakova, Ekaterina
Venue
Frontiers in Neurology
Published
2015-03-12
Volume
6
Pages
52-52
ISSN
1664-2295 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1973717649
Cited by
242
References
95
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 4
FWCI
2.64
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Neurology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
Keywords
fatigue, multiple sclerosis, striatum, prefrontal cortex, dopamine signaling, traumatic brain injury, chronic fatigue syndrome, cancer-related fatigue, fatigue perception

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