Citation

Lawrence KM, De Paermentier F, Cheetham SC, Crompton MR, Katona CL, Horton RW. Brain Res. 1990; 526(1): 17-22.

Affiliation

Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London, U.K.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, International Brain Research Organization, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2150340

Abstract

Brain serotonin (5-HT) uptake sites were quantitated, by saturation binding of 3H.paroxetine, in 10 brain regions from 22 suicide victims and 20 control subjects. Suicide victims were restricted to those subjects in whom a firm retrospective diagnosis of depression was established and who had not recently been prescribed antidepressant drugs. The Kd and Bmax of 3H.paroxetine did not differ significantly between controls and depressed suicides in any of the brain regions. In putamen, Bmax values of suicides who died non-violently were lower than controls, whereas those who died by violent methods did not differ from controls. No significant differences between violent or non-violent suicides and their matched controls were found in other brain areas. These results offer little support for the view that suicide/depression is associated with an abnormality in 5-HT uptake.

Language: en