Recent discoveries involving pyramidal neurons with two zones of input integration (apical and basal), the contextual information they provide, and the neural circuitry and neuromodulation systems in which they are embedded, can contribute to our understanding of disorganized symptoms in schizophrenia, including changes in their expression from the prodromal to chronic stages of the disorder....
Biological PsychiatryApril 15, 2012Nina B L Urban, Mark Slifstein, Judy L. Thompson et al.
Low striatal dopamine 2/3 receptor (D(2/3)) availability and low ventrostriatal dopamine (DA) release have been observed in alcoholism and cocaine and heroin dependence. Less is known about the dopaminergic system in cannabis dependence. We assessed D(2/3) availability and DA release in abstinent cannabis users compared with control subjects and explored relationships to cannabis use history...
Schizophrenia ResearchSeptember 21, 2008C. Corcoran, D. Kimhy, Arielle D. Stanford et al.
Background Cannabis use is reported to increase the risk for psychosis, but no prospective study has longitudinally examined drug use and symptoms concurrently in clinical high risk cases. Method We prospectively followed for up to 2 years 32 cases who met research criteria for prodromal psychosis to examine the relationship between substance use and clinical measures. Results Cases with a...