Journal
EUROPEAN NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
Volume 17, Issue 10, Pages 672-686Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2007.04.002
Keywords
doxapram; PET; panic; prefrontal cortex; amygdala; neuroimaging
Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [R01 MH071827-03, R01 MH071827] Funding Source: Medline
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Administration of doxapram hydrochloride, a respiratory stimulant, is experienced by panic disorder patients to be similar to panic attacks but has reduced emotional effect in normal volunteers, thus providing a laboratory model of panic for functional imaging. Six panic patients and seven normal control subjects underwent positron emission tomography with F-18-deoxyglucose imaging after a single-blinded administration of either doxapram or a placebo saline solution. Saline and doxapram were administered on separate days in counterbalanced order. Patients showed a greater heart rate increase on doxapram relative to saline than controls, indicating differential response. On the saline placebo day, patients had greater prefrontal relative activity than controls. In response to doxapram, patients tended to decrease prefrontal activity more than controls, and increased cingulate gyrus and amygdala activity more than controls. This suggests that panic disorder patients activate frontal inhibitory centers less than controls, a tendency that may tower the threshold for panic. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.
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