Decreased serotonin 2A receptor densities in neuroleptic-naive patients with schizophrenia: A PET study using [F-18]setoperone

Objective: The authors compared serotonin receptor binding in patients with schizophrenia and healthy comparison subjects. Method: They used positron emission tomography with [F-18]setoperone to exa mine six patients with schizophrenia who had never been given neuroleptics and seven age matched subjects who did not have schizophrenia. Results: A nondirected voxel-based analysis of the subjects' entire search volume found that serotonin ZA binding potential in the frontal cortex inde x was significantly smaller (by 16.3%) in patients with schizophrenia than in healthy subjects, Conclusions: The author, conclude that the decrease in serotonin receptor d ensities previously reported in postmortem studies of subjects with schizop hrenia are present at the onset of the illness. before exposure to neurolep tics.