Elevated serotonin transporter binding in depressed patients with Parkinson's disease: A preliminary PET study with [11C]DASB

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Abstract
This study investigated whether abnormalities in serotonin transporter binding occur in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with concurrent depression. We estimated serotonin transporter levels in seven clinically depressed early‐stage PD patients and in seven healthy matched‐control subjects during a single positron emission tomography (PET) scan with the serotonin transporter radioligand, [11C]DASB. Depressed PD patients displayed a wide‐spread increase (8–68%) in [11C]DASB specific binding outside of the striatum, which was significant in dorsolateral (37%) and prefrontal (68%) cortices. Elevated [11C]DASB binding was positively correlated with depressive symptoms but not with disease severity or duration. Compatible with recent PET/[11C]DASB findings in major depression, the present preliminary data suggest that increased [11C]DASB binding, possibly reflecting greater serotonin transporter density (up‐regulation), might be a pathological feature of depression in Parkinson's disease—and possibly a characteristic of depressive illness in general. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society

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