Presynaptic Dopamine Synthesis Capacity in Schizophrenia and Striatal Blood Flow Change During Antipsychotic...

Standard-of-care biological treatment of schizophrenia remains dependent upon antipsychotic medications, which demonstrate D₂ receptor affinity and elicit variable, partial clinical responses via neural mechanisms that are not entirely understood. In the striatum, where D₂ receptors are abundant, antipsychotic medications may affect neural function in studies of animals, healthy volunteers, and patients, yet the relevance of this to pharmacotherapeutic actions remains unresolved. In this same brain region, some individuals with schizophrenia may demonstrate phenotypes consistent with exaggerated dopaminergic signaling, including alterations in dopamine synthesis capacity; however, the hypothesis that dopamine system characteristics underlie variance in medication-induced regional blood flow changes has not been directly tested. We therefore studied a cohort of 30 individuals with schizophrenia using longitudinal, multi-session [¹⁵O]-water and [¹⁸F]-FDOPA positron emission tomography to determine striatal blood flow during active atypical antipsychotic medication treatment and after at least 3 weeks of placebo treatment, along with presynaptic dopamine synthesis capacity (ie, DOPA decarboxylase activity). Regional striatal blood flow was significantly higher during active treatment than during the placebo condition. Furthermore, medication-related increases in ventral striatal blood flow were associated with more robust amelioration of excited factor symptoms during active medication and with higher dopamine synthesis capacity. These data indicate that atypical medications enact measureable physiological alterations in limbic striatal circuitry that vary as a function of dopaminergic tone and may have relevance to aspects of therapeutic responses.