Dopamine is a chemical made in your brain and in your adrenal glands. It transmits impulses between neurons, or nerve cells, and between brain regions. If a brain region produces too much or too little dopamine, neurological disorders such as schizophrenia and musculoskeletal abnormalities such as Parkinson's disease result. Adrenal gland dopamine helps regulate your heart and blood pressure.
High Levels
Dopamine levels above 400mcg in a 24-hour urine collection are considered high, according to laboratory standards published by MedlinePlus. Conditions that can cause these high levels include rare neurological cancers, adrenal gland tumors and extreme stress and anxiety. A blood dopamine level higher than 30 picogram per milliliter, pg/mL, is considered high, according to laboratory standards published by Cigna. This degree of elevation can be detected with a single blood test and does not require 24 hours to collect. Trauma, surgery, major burns and sepsis can cause high levels in a blood test.
Low Levels
Dopamine determined by a 24-hour urine collection is considered low according to the MedlinePlus laboratory standards if it is below 65mcg. Cigna does not publish a lower limit of normal for the blood dopamine test. Patients with damage to their adrenal gland produce little or no dopamine and may be suffering from Addison's disease. A brain region called the substantia nigra, if it stops producing dopamine, will lead to Parkinson's disease. However, neither the urine nor blood test is sufficient to detect this low dopamine reading, as the loss of dopamine occurs entirely within the sufferer's brain.
Dopamine-Related Substances
Dopamine does not function alone. It is one of the catecholamines, a class of substances produced by your brain and adrenal glands. The best known catecholamine is epinephrine, more commonly known as adrenaline. Other other catecholamines include norepinephrine, metanephrine and normetanephrine. All of these compounds function together in a complex balance to control your blood pressure, cardiac function and neurological responses to external and internal stimuli and stress. High and low levels of each substance create your finely tuned response to events.
