title: Dopamine transporter availability in medication free and in bupropion treated depression: a 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bupropion is thought to exert its antidepressive effect by blocking the dopamine transporter (DAT). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the DAT activity in depressed patients by means of 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT in relation to the efficacy of bupropion treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 12 healthy controls and 16 depressed patients the baseline DAT activity was examined. Nine of the 16 patients went through an additional second SPECT investigation, after 4 weeks of bupropion treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the depressed patients, the baseline DAT striatum-occipital ratio (SOR) (1.04+/-.36, mean+/-SD) was not significantly different from that in the control group (1.12+/-.33) (p>.05). Correlation was found between baseline SOR and HAM-D score change (r=-.745, p=.02) of the bupropion treated patients. The average DAT occupancy due to the bupropion treatment was 20.84+/-27.7%. No significant correlation between the therapeutical effectiveness and the occupancy was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  One of the limiting factors of our study has been the lack of drug monitoring.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In good agreement with other PET studies, we found 20.84% DAT occupancy during bupropion treatment. The lack of correlation between the efficacy of therapy and occupancy of DAT may raise the question as to whether other mechanisms are involved in the effect of bupropion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary. argyelan@gmail.com
authors.forename: Miklós
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Argyelán
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Szabó
authors.forename: Balázs
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kanyó
authors.forename: Attila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tanács
authors.forename: Zsuzsanna
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Janka
authors.forename: László
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pávics
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016642:Bupropion / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000187:drug effects*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy*; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000187:drug effects*; D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000187:drug effects*; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012016:Reference Values; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014326:Tropanes
chemical_list: D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D014326:Tropanes; C104196:technetium Tc 99m TRODAT-1; D016642:Bupropion