A comparative uptake study of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine by platelets of acute schizophrenic patients

Active uptake of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine by blood platelets of 22 acute schizophrenic patients and 15 normal control subjects was studied over a 6-week period. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) was used to evaluate the subjects' mental state over this period. Serotonin uptake by platelets of the schizophrenic group was 40% lower than that by platelets of the control group (p less than 0.001). No significant differences in uptake of dopamine or norepinephrine were observed. These results might reflected a genetic defect in the schizophrenic patients. No significant correlations were found between the biochemical and BPRS results. A correlation was found between the uptake results with dopamine and norepinephrine but not between these amines and serotonin. This finding may provide indirect support for previously published experimental data which suggest that the carriers to dopamine and norepinephrine differ in function from those of serotonin.