In vivo neuropharmacology of schizophrenia

Since the introduction of chlorpromazine in the 1950s, followed by the discovery (with in vitro receptor binding assays), in the mid-1970s, that antipsychotic drugs block a subtype of dopamine receptor (D2/D2-like) (Creese et al, 1976) and that affinity for these receptors appears to correlate directly with clinical potency for antipsychotics (Peroutka & Synder, 1980), the study of neurotransmitters and receptors has been a major target of schizophrenia research (Owens, 1996). In 1983, the first visualisation, by positron emission tomography (PET), of the binding of D2 dopamine receptors in the brain of a living human subject was reported (Wagner et al, 1983). Following this, the number of research studies using PET and single photon emission tomography (SPET) has increased enormously.