The hypofrontality theory ofthe pathogenesof schizophrenia predicts that cortical lesions caupsychosis. To test the hypothesis that the state of psychosis in temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with the same striatal supersensitivity that may cause psychosis in schizophrenia, we measured the rate of metabolism of an exogenous analog of dopa in both disorders, using positron emission tomography (PET) ofthe tracer 6-18Flfluoro-L-dopa (18F-dopa) (5,6).We have previously shown that the rate of metabolism of externally administered 18F-dopa is an index ofthe activity of the enzyme responsible for the decarboxylation of dopa to dopamine (EC 4.1.1.28) (7,8). We determined the brain metabolism of 18F-dopa in 31 subjects, including 10 patients with psychotic disorders, of whom 5 had schizophrenia and 5 had a history of complex partial seizures (CPS) with schizophreniform psychosis, and 21 control subjects, of whom 8 had CPS without psychosis and 13 were healthy volunteers.

No abstract

No abstract