The Very Real and Deep Depression of Parkinson's Disease
Age, gender, and medication do not change the results
Brain activity pathways were modeled using a reference tissue compartmental method to obtain an image of the binding potential. Radioactivity in the cerebellum was used as the on-specific tissue reference input. An integrated ADD image was created by summing the time series of the [11C] RTI-32 uptake scans 90 minutes after tracer administration.
The regions of the brain scans included the substantia nigra, thalamus, amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex. These regions, and others were chosen since they receive monoaminergic projections or because of their patterns related to depression.
The results? There were no numericalvariances between those patients who had no depression symptoms and those who were depressed groups considering disease duration, age, and doses of antiparkinsonian medication scores.
