Dopaminergic Function in the Psychosis Spectrum: An [18F]-DOPA Imaging Study in Healthy Individuals With Auditory Hallucinations |
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| Authors: | Oliver D. Howes Paul Shotbolt Michael Bloomfield Kirstin Daalman Arsime Demjaha Kelly M. J. Diederen Kemal Ibrahim Euitae Kim Philip McGuire René S. Kahn Iris E. Sommer |
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| Affiliation: | 1.Psychiatric Imaging Group, MRC Clinical Science Centre, Imperial College Hammersmith Campus, London, W12 0NN, UK;2.King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry (King’s Health Partners), Camberwell, London, SE5 8AF, UK;3.Psychiatry Division, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Background: The psychosis phenotype appears to exist in the population as a continuum, but it is not clear if subclinical psychotic symptoms and psychotic disorders share the same neurobiology. We investigated whether the dopaminergic dysfunction seen in psychotic disorders is also present in healthy, well-functioning people with hallucinations.Methods: We compared dopamine synthesis capacity (using 6-[18F]fluoro-L-DOPA [[18F]-DOPA] positron emission tomography imaging) in 16 healthy individuals with frequent persistent auditory verbal hallucinations (hallucinating group) with that in 16 matched controls. Results: There was no significant difference in dopamine synthesis capacity in the striatum, or its functional subdivisions, between groups and no relationship between subclinical psychotic symptom severity or schizotypal traits and dopamine synthesis capacity in the hallucinating group. Conclusions: Altered dopamine synthesis capacity is unlikely to underlie subclinical hallucinations, suggesting that although there may be a phenomenological psychosis continuum, there are distinctions at the neurobiological level. |
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| Keywords: | hallucination schizophrenia aetiology neurochemistry subclinical PET symptom dopamine psychosis continuum |
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