[Benzodiazepine receptors in the hippocampus of suicides]

The characteristics of benzodiazepine binding sites (distribution, number, affinity) were defined on frozen sections of suicide's hippocampus (death by hanging) labeled with 3H flunitrazepam and compared to data previously obtained on control brains. The study was carried out qualitatively by autoradiography (distribution) and quantitatively by a biochemical technique (number and affinity). As a whole, the characteristics of BZD binding sites were not modified in relation to controls, except for a very slight decrease in affinity of subtype I.