The relationship between subjective well-being and dopamine D2 receptors in patients treated with a dopamine partial agonist and full antagonist antipsychotics

Antipsychotic drugs produce unpleasant subjective experiences, which have been associated with high levels of dopamine D receptor occupancy. Aripiprazole is a partial agonist antipsychotic, which is hypothesized to produce a different subjective experience profile compared to standard D, antagonist antipsychotics. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of D-2 occupancy produced by a partial agonist antipsychotic (aripiprazole) to that of antagonist antipsychotics (risperidone or olanzapine) on the subjective well-being of patients. Subjective well-being was measured using the Subjective Wellbeing under Neuroleptics Scale (SWN) and was related to dopamine D-2 receptor occupancy using [C-11]radopride PET. Patients that were switched to aripiprazole showed improvement in their subjective well-being from 79-80 (S.D. = 16.08) to 89.90 (S.D. = 15.33), an effect that was sustained for 6 months. This sustained improvement was observed despite very high levels of DA D-2 Occupancy (82-99 %), in contrast to the effects of antagonist antipsychotics on subjective well-being.