Postmortem Studies in neuropsychiatric disorders test hypotheses with regard to schizophrenia, suicide, and addictions. New findings in schizophrenia include the following: (1) increased met- enkephalin in the substantia nigra of schizophrenic patients versus controls; (2) normal dopamine reuptake sites in putamen of schizophrenic patients versus controls; (3) an association of age disorientation (an aspect of dementia) with ventriculomegaly in schizophrenic patients; and (4) no evidence for hippocampal disarray in schizophrenic patients. New findings in suicide studies included normal amino acid concentrations in a number of brain regions. In addition, a study of heat shock proteins found tha heterozygosity was present in 30% of brains of subject who died from causes other than suicide. However, in 21 suicides (100%), the heat shock proteins were homozygous. Lastly, hippocampal glutamate binding was increased in alcoholic brains as compared with controls. This increase was especially pronounced in alcoholics who died from seizures secondary to alcohol withdrawal.
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