 |
|
Possible Changes in Striatal and Limbic Cholinergic Systems in Schizophrenia
Patrick L. McGeer, MD, PhD;
Edith G. McGeer, PhD
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1977;34(11):1319-1323.
Abstract
• Enzymes concerned with neurotransmitter metabolism were measured postmortem in 50 regions from the brains of 11 chronic schizophrenics, 2 patients with senile dementia, 1 depressive, and 18 controls. Enzymes studied were tyrosine hydroxylase, dopa decarboxylase, glutamic decarboxylase, choline acetyltransferase (CAT), and acetylcholinesterase. The schizophrenic group had high CAT activities in the hippocampus, caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens; the other patients from the same hospital did not. A compensatory response to long- or short-term drug usage is considered, but correlations are hard to establish in the group studied. An alternative hypothesis proposes that the high levels are a compensatory response to defective cholinergic receptors in the affected areas. On this hypothesis, and by analogy with chorea, dopaminergic antagonists would act in schizophrenia by helping to reestablish cholinergic-dopaminergic balance.
Author Affiliations
From the Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Footnotes
Accepted for publication May 13, 1977.
Reprint requests to Division of Neurological Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1W5, Canada (Dr E. McGeer).
 CiteULike  Connotea  Delicious  Digg  Facebook  Reddit  Technorati  Twitter
What's this?
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
Evolution of the Human CNS Cholineric System: Has This Resulted in the Emergence of Psychiatric Disease?
Dean
Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2009;43:1016-1028.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Signal Transmission, Rather Than Reception, is the Underlying Neurochemical Abnormality in Schizophrenia
Dean
Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2000;34:560-569.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
{beta}-Casomorphin Induces Fos-Like Immunoreactivity in Discrete Brain Regions Relevant to Schizophrenia and Autism
Sun et al.
Autism 1999;3:67-83.
ABSTRACT
In Pursuit of the Molecular Neuropathology of Schizophrenia-Reply
Akbarian and Jones
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1995;52:277-278.
ABSTRACT
|
