Schizophrenia, VIII: Pharmacologic Models

Abstract

In order to explain the mechanism of action of ketamine in the human brain, we utilized functional brain imaging ([15O]H2O positron emission tomography [PET]). Psychotic symptoms in persons who received ketamine were assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. The response of healthy and schizophrenia volunteers to ketamine was a dose-sensitive increase in psychotic symptoms, similar in both groups except that the schizophrenia volunteers started from a higher psychosis baseline. The imaging data suggest that these two areas of the brain play some role in the mediation of the psychotic symptoms produced by ketamine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)