What does the Dopamine test measure?

Why is Dopamine measured?

Functional practitioners interpret urinary dopamine in the context of motivation, focus, and reward-seeking behaviour. Low levels are associated with apathy, poor concentration, and anhedonia, while elevated levels may reflect stress or sympathetic activation. The relationship to central dopaminergic function is indirect and the clinical utility for psychiatric diagnosis is not established.

Reference ranges

Standard reference

Laboratory-specific functional range; Sanesco reports normalised to creatinine and scored relative to proprietary reference population.

Functional medicine optimal

Sanesco defines optimal ranges from their proprietary database; values outside these ranges are flagged for clinical correlation rather than diagnosis.

Units

µg/mg creatinine, ng/mg creatinine, μg/g creatinine, µg/g creatinine

Reference ranges vary by laboratory and assay platform. Interpret in context of the issuing laboratory's stated range.