Posted by SLS on October 18, 2010, at 17:46:35
In reply to Re: Thinking of coming off meds » huxley, posted by SLS on October 18, 2010, at 17:36:42
Sorry...
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1999 Jun;144(3):282-5.
Striatal dopamine transporter density in major depression.Laasonen-Balk T, Kuikka J, Viinamäki H, Husso-Saastamoinen M, Lehtonen J, Tiihonen J.
Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, Finland.
AbstractRATIONALE: There are no previous data available regarding [123I]beta-CIT binding to the dopamine transporter sites in the basal ganglia in depressed patients.
OBJECTIVE: The present study tested the hypothesis that the brain DAT density in depressed patients is lower than that in matched healthy controls.
METHODS: Fifteen drug-naive outpatients with major depression and 18 healthy controls were investigated using single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) with a high-affinity dopamine transporter specific radioligand. 123I-labeled beta-CIT (2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-iodophenyl-tropane).
RESULTS: We found a significantly higher [123I]beta-CIT uptake in both sides of the basal ganglia in patients with major depression than in the controls (Mann-Whitney U-test, P = 0.002 on the right and P = 0.003 on the left).
CONCLUSIONS: The radioligand uptake reflecting the DAT density was significantly higher among the patients than in the controls. This finding is unexpected, since it is generally believed that monoaminergic neurotransmission is lower in depression, and therefore it could be assumed that a reduction in dopamine transmission would lead to secondary down-regulation of DAT density. However, it is possible that up-regulation of the DAT may be the primary alteration, which leads to lower intrasynaptic dopamine concentration and to lower dopamine neural transmission.
The measure of achievement lies not in how high the mountain,
but in how hard the climb.The measure of success lies only in how high one feels he must
climb to get there.
poster:SLS
thread:965683
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20101009/msgs/966178.html