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Dopamine transporter availability in symptomatic depressed patients with seasonal affective disorder and healthy controls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2001

A. NEUMEISTER ,
M. WILLEIT ,
N. PRASCHAK-RIEDER ,
S. ASENBAUM ,
J. STASTNY ,
E. HILGER ,
W. PIRKER ,
A. KONSTANTINIDIS  and
S. KASPER
A. NEUMEISTER
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
M. WILLEIT
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
N. PRASCHAK-RIEDER
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
S. ASENBAUM
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
J. STASTNY
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
E. HILGER
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
W. PIRKER
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
A. KONSTANTINIDIS
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
S. KASPER
Affiliation:
From the Department of General Psychiatry and Department of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austria
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Abstract

Background. During recent years hypotheses about the pathophysiology of seasonal affective disorder/winter type (SAD) have focused monoaminergic mechanisms. There is substantial evidence that serotonergic systems play an important role. The potential role of catecholaminergic pathways has not been fully explored.

Methods. Eleven drug-free, symptomatic depressed patients with SAD and 11 healthy age- and gender-matched healthy controls were invited to participate in a 123Iβ-CIT single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) study to assess striatal density of dopamine transporters (DATs). The cerebellum was used as reference region. Ratios were calculated between mean counts in left and right striatum and cerebellum. These ratios minus 1 represent specific/non-displaceable binding and are assumed to be directly related to DAT availability at the time of binding equilibrium.

Results. Displaceable 123Iβ-CIT binding in the area corresponding to the left striatum was significantly reduced in SAD patients compared to healthy controls (10·49±0·91 v. 11·95±1·54, respectively; 2-tailed P = 0·017, Mann–Whitney U test).

Conclusions. These data suggest reductions in the availability of striatal DAT binding sites in untreated symptomatic depressed SAD patients. It remains unclear whether these reductions represent a primary defect or an attempt to overcome a state of possible lowered dopamine availability in the synaptic cleft during a depressive episode of SAD. However, these findings provide evidence that brain dopaminergic systems may be involved in the pathophysiology of SAD.

Type
Brief Communication
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 31 , Issue 8 , November 2001 , pp. 1467 - 1473
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This work was presented in part, in abstract form, at the 10th Annual Meeting of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, Amelia Island, FL, USA, 6–10 May, 1998.