Extrastriatal dopamine D2/3 receptors and cortical grey matter volumes in antipsychotic-naïve schizophrenia patients before and after initial antipsychotic treatment.

AbstractObjectives: Long-term dopamine D2/3 receptor blockade, common to all antipsychotics, may underlie progressive brain volume changes observed in patients with chronic schizophrenia. In the present study, we examined associations between cortical volume changes and extrastriatal dopamine D2/3 receptor binding potentials (BPND) in first-episode schizophrenia patents at baseline and after antipsychotic treatment.Methods: Twenty-two initially antipsychotic-naive patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), [123I]epidepride single-photon emission computerised tomography (SPECT), and psychopathology assessments before and after 3 months of treatment with either risperidone (N = 13) or zuclopenthixol (N = 9). Twenty healthy controls matched on age, gender and parental socioeconomic status underwent baseline MRI and SPECT.Results: Neither extrastriatal D2/3 receptor BPND at baseline, nor blockade at follow-up, was related to regional cortical volume changes. In post-hoc analyses excluding three pati...