Author : Ralph Brett Lewis
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (133 download)
Book Synopsis Postmortem Finding of Decreased 5-HT2A Receptor Number in Schizophrenia is Not Confirmed in Living Subjects Using Positron Emission Tomography by : Ralph Brett Lewis
Download or read book Postmortem Finding of Decreased 5-HT2A Receptor Number in Schizophrenia is Not Confirmed in Living Subjects Using Positron Emission Tomography written by Ralph Brett Lewis and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis describes a study of brain serotonin type-2A (5-HT$\sb{\rm 2A})$ receptors in schizophrenia using positron emission tomography (PET). Several post-mortem studies had reported a decreased density/number of 5-HT$\sb{\rm 2A}$ receptors in the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. In this study, 13 neuroleptic-free patients with schizophrenia were compared to a group of 26 subjects free of mental illness in the same age range. 5-HT$\sb{\rm 2A}$ receptors were assessed using the PET radioligand $\lbrack\sp#x18;$F) setoperone in standardized cortical regions of interest (ROIs). Age was found to be associated with a decline in cortical 5-HT$\sb{\rm 2A}$ receptors, similarly in both patients and normal comparison subjects. After controlling for the effect of age, there was no statistically significant difference in the number of 5-HT$\sb{\rm 2A}$ receptors between patients and comparison subjects in any of the cortical regions. These results thus fail to confirm the $>$25% decrease in 5-HT$\sb{\rm 2A}$ receptors reported in postmortem studies of schizophrenia. Implications and limitations of this research are discussed.