Behavioral Response to Catecholamine Depletion in Individuals With Schizophrenia and Healthy Volunteers.

Suker, Samir; Mihov, Yoan; Wolf, Andreas; Mueller, Stefanie V; Hasler, Gregor (2023). Behavioral Response to Catecholamine Depletion in Individuals With Schizophrenia and Healthy Volunteers. Schizophrenia Bulletin Open, 4(1), sgad023. Oxford University Press 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad023

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BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS

Dysfunction of the dopamine system is the leading neurobiological hypothesis of schizophrenia. In this study, we tested this hypothesis in the context of aberrance salience theory of delusions using catecholamine depletion. We hypothesized that acute dopamine depletion improves both positive symptoms and salience attribution in individuals with schizophrenia.

STUDY DESIGN

Catecholamine depletion was achieved by oral administration of alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine (AMPT) in 15 individuals with schizophrenia and 15 healthy volunteers. The study design consisted of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover, single-site experimental trial. The main outcome measures were the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms and the Salience Attribution Test.

STUDY RESULTS

Catecholamine depletion transiently reduced specific psychotic symptoms in symptomatic individuals with schizophrenia, namely delusions and positive formal thought disorder (interaction treatment-by-timepoint, P = .013 and P = .010, respectively). We also found trends for catecholamine depletion to increase relevant bias and adaptive salience in participants with schizophrenia while decreasing them in healthy controls (interaction group-by-treatment, P = .060 and P = .089, respectively). Exploratory analyses revealed that in participants with schizophrenia, higher relevant bias at 3 hours after the end of AMPT treatment corresponded to lower delusional symptoms (Spearman's rho = -0.761, P = .001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that the relationship between dopamine hyperactivity and delusional symptoms in schizophrenia is mediated by impaired attribution of salience to reward-predicting stimuli.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Translational Research Center
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

UniBE Contributor:

Suker Al-Ghazali, Samir, Wolf, Andreas, Müller-Köhn, Stefanie Verena

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

2632-7899

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

16 Aug 2024 08:22

Last Modified:

16 Aug 2024 08:31

Publisher DOI:

10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad023

PubMed ID:

39145346

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/199738

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/199738

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