A postmortem study of the effect of chronic opiate abuse on psychotomimetic binding sites of human frontal cortex

Membranes were prepared from area 8 of human frontal cortex harvested from five controls and five opiate addicts. Psychotomimetic binding sites were assayed using tritiated 1-(1-[2-thiethyl]cyclohexyl)piperidine ([3H]TCP) to label phencyclidine binding sites and 1,3-Di(2-[5-3H]tolyl)guanidine ([3H]DTG) to label the "haloperidol-sensitive sigma binding site." The results demonstrated no significant differences between the control and experimental groups, suggesting that in the region of the human brain sampled in this study, chronic abuse of opiates is not accompanied by alterations in psychotomimetic binding sites.