Citation

Bligh-Glover W, Kolli TN, Shapiro-Kulnane L, Dilley GE, Friedman L, Balraj E, Rajkowska G, Stockmeier CA. Biol. Psychiatry 2000; 47(12): 1015-1024.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/s0006-3223(99)00313-3

PMID

10862800

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The involvement of serotonin in depression and suicide has been proposed, because major depression is successfully treated by medications that specifically block the serotonin transporter, and there is evidence for a decrease in serotonin transporters in major depression and suicide. The midbrain dorsal raphe nucleus (DR) has been implicated as a site for diminished serotonergic activity in that suicide victims with major depression have a significant increase in serotonin-1A autoreceptors in the DR.

METHODS: [(3)H]Paroxetine was used to label the serotonin transporter in the subnuclei of the DR at several rostral-to-caudal levels of the midbrain in ten pairs of suicide victims with major depression and age-matched psychiatrically normal control subjects.

RESULTS: There was a significant increase in serotonin transporters in the entire DR progressing from rostral-to-caudal levels in both normal control subjects and suicide victims with major depression. At comparable rostral-to-caudal levels, there were no significant differences in [(3)H]paroxetine binding between depressed suicide victims and normal control subjects in either the entire DR or its constituent subnuclei.

CONCLUSIONS: The pathophysiology of serotonin mechanisms in suicide victims with major depression does not appear to involve alterations in the binding of [(3)H]paroxetine to the serotonin transporter in the midbrain DR.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Adult; Aged; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Retrospective Studies; Aged, 80 and over; *Suicide; Immunohistochemistry; Paroxetine; Autoradiography; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; Radioligand Assay; *Membrane Transport Proteins; Carrier Proteins/*metabolism; Depressive Disorder/*metabolism; Membrane Glycoproteins/*metabolism; Mesencephalon/*metabolism; Nerve Tissue Proteins/*metabolism; Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors; Serotonin/*metabolism