Project Summary

Franklin R. Schneier, M.D. (Independent Investigator 2004) of New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, aims to use imaging to study the relationship between dopamine release in subregions of the brain’s striatum and the lack of pleasure and slowed thinking symptoms of major depressive disorder. Although several neuroreceptor studies have directly assessed dopamine function in the striatum, the measurements were restricted to the whole striatum but not to the striatum’s functional limbic, associative and sensorimotor subregions. Using a high-resolution PET camera, Dr. Schneier recently demonstrated that these functional subregions can be differentiated, allowing much-improved anatomical precision. Preliminary results reveal that major depressive disorder (particularly the melancholic subtype), and lack of pleasure symptoms are associated with decreased dopamine receptor availability in the ventral (limbic) striatum. Symptoms of psychomotor retardation and affective blunting were most strongly associated with low dopamine receptor availability in associative striatum. The proposed study will be the first application of PET with displacement of [11C] raclopride by amphetamine to major depressive disorder, the first to incorporate assessment of striatal subregions, and to incorporate careful clinical assessment of the condition previously associated with dopamine function.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Unipolar Depression

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