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Realationship between dopamine D2 receptor availability and cognitive performance and psychopathology in drug-free patients with schizophrenia
Conference proceeding   Peer reviewed

Realationship between dopamine D2 receptor availability and cognitive performance and psychopathology in drug-free patients with schizophrenia

T Veselinovic, I B Vernaleken, H Janouschek, M Paulzen and G Gründer
Pharmacopsychiatry, Vol.48(6)
Abstracts of the 29th Symposium of the AGNP - Munich - 2015
09/03/2015
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1558000

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Abstract

The relationship between cognitive dysfunctions in schizophrenia and dopaminergic transmission is not sufficiently understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between psychopathology, cognition and dopamine D2 receptor availability in unmedicated patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. PET recordings were obtained in a group of 15 unmedicated patients with schizophrenia and 11 healthy volunteers using the high affinity ligand [18F]fallypride (FP). On the same day all participants were examined with a neuropsychological test battery and the PANSS scale. Baseline FP binding potentials (BP) did not differ significantly between the two groups. Patients reached sign. poorer results in almost all examined cognitive domains. In this group we detected a sign. positive correlation between the Trail-Making test (TMTA and TMTB) and the Digits-Symbol-Substitution-Test and the dopamine D2/3 receptor availability throughout brain. The correlation remained sign. also after Bonferroni correction in caudate nucleus (NC) and putamen (P) for TMTA (r = −.85/r = −.73; both p < .001) and TMTB (r = −.81/r = .83; both p < .001). Further, a negative correlation was found between the PANSS excitement component and FP BP in NC (p = .008) and P (p = .014). None of the reported correlations was found in the control group. Our results indicate a relevant relationship between the striatal dopaminergic transmission and some cognitive domains and general excitement in schizophrenia. This study was supported by DFG

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