Increased dopamine concentration in limbic areas of brain from patients dying with schizophrenia

Dopamine, noradrenaline, glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) and choline acetyl-transferase (CAT) were measured in post-mortem brain samples from more than 50 patients dying with a hospital diagnosis of schizophrenia and an equal number of controls. GAD was measured in 14 different brain regions, and was significantly lower in both control and schizophrenia patients who died following a protracted illness. If GAD values from patients who died suddenly were compared, no significant differences were observed between the control and schizophrenia groups. There was also no differences between the CAT values measured in 13 different brain regions in the two groups. Noradrenaline values were not different in the two groups in most limbic areas or in the caudate nucleus, but were elevated in the schizophrenic group in nucleus accumbens and in anterior perforated substance. These differences were not, however, statistically significant. On the other hand dopamine concentrations in nucleus accumbens and in anterior perforated substance were significantly elevated (by 34 and 95 per cent, respectively) in the schizophrenia group as compared with controls, although dopamine values were not different in caudate nucleus, putamen, septal nuclei or amygdala. The finding of elevated concentrations of dopamine in certain areas of the limbic forebrain in schizophrenia is discussed in relation to current hypotheses of the involvement of dopamine in this illness, and the difficulties of determining whether the observed changes are related to chronic treatment with antischizophrenic drugs.