Raclopride is a typical antipsychotic. It acts as a selective antagonist on D<sub>2</sub> dopamine receptors. It has been used in trials studying Parkinson Disease.
Raclopride is selective for D2 and D3 dopamine receptors.
It can be radiolabelled with radioisotopes, e.g. <sup>3</sup>H or <sup>11</sup>C and used as a tracer for in vitro imaging (autoradiography) as well as in vivo imaging positron emission tomography (PET). Images obtained by cerebral PET scanning (e.g. PET/CT or PET/MRI) allow the non-invasive assessment of the binding capacity of the cerebral D<sub>2</sub> dopamine receptor, which can be useful for the diagnosis of movement disorders. In particular, cerebral D<sub>2</sub> receptor binding as measured by carbon-11-raclopride (<sup>11</sup>C-raclopride) has shown to reflect disease severity of Huntington's disease, a genetic disease characterized by selective degeneration of cerebral D<sub>2</sub> receptors.
Other studies have investigated the relationship of D<sub>2</sub> receptor binding capacity and personality disorders. One study found decreased binding in the detachment personality trait. Radiolabelled raclopride is also commonly used to determine the efficacy and neurotoxicity of dopaminergic drugs.