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Elevated presynaptic striatal dopaminergic function is a robust feature of schizophrenia. However, the relationship between this dopamine abnormality and the response to dopamine-blocking antipsychotic treatments is unclear. The authors tested the hypothesis that in patients with schizophrenia the response to antipsychotic treatment would be related to the severity of presynaptic dopamine dysfunction, as indexed using [¹⁸F]-DOPA uptake positron emission tomography (PET).

Twelve patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, twelve patients with schizophrenia who had responded to antipsychotics, and twelve healthy volunteers matched for gender, age, ethnicity, weight, and cigarette smoking underwent [¹⁸F]-DOPA PET scanning. [¹⁸F]-DOPA influx rate constants (K_i^cer values) were measured in the striatum and its functional subdivisions.

Patients who had responded to …