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Reproducibility of Regional Brain Metabolic Responses to Lorazepam

Medical and Chemistry Departments, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York
Departments of Radiology and Psychiatry, SUNY, Stony Brook, New York
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas, Houston, Texas
Psychiatry Service, VA Medical Center, Northport, New York

Correspondence: For correspondence or reprints contact: Gene-Jack Wang, MD, Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973.

ABSTRACT

Changes in regional brain glucose metabolism in response to benzodiazepine agonists have been used as indicators of benzodiazepine-GABA receptor function. The purpose of this study was to assess the reproducibility of these responses. Methods: Sixteen healthy right-handed men underwent scanning with PET and [¹⁸F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) twice: before placebo and before lorazepam (30 µg/kg). The same double FDG procedure was repeated 6–8 wk later on the men to assess test-retest reproducibility. Results: The regional absolute brain metabolic values obtained during the second evaluation were significantly lower than those obtained from the first evaluation regardless of condition (p < 0.001). Lorazepam significantly and consistently decreased both whole-brain metabolism and the magnitude. The regional pattern of the changes were comparable for both studies (12.3% ± 6.9% and 13.7% ± 7.4%). Lorazepam effects were the largest in the thalamus (22.2% ± 8.6% and 22.4% ± 6.9%) and occipital cortex (19% ± 8.9% and 21.8% ± 8.9%). Relative metabolic measures were highly reproducible both for pharmacolgic and replication condition. Conclusion: This study measured the test-retest reproducibility in regional brain metabolic responses, and although the global and regional metabolic values were significantly lower for the repeated evaluation, the response to lorazepam was highly reproducible.

Key Words: cerebral glucose metabolism • lorazepam • pharmacological challenge

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