Increased ventral striatal CB receptor binding is related to negative symptoms in drug-free patients with schizophrenia.

Increasing animal genetic, post-mortem and pharmacological evidence supports a role for the cerebral type 1 cannabinoid (CB1) receptor in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia (SCZ) and/or neural circuit dysfunctions responsible for its symptomatology. Moreover, since important interspecies differences are present in CB1 receptor expression, in vivo human data are of direct interest. We investigated an in vivo CB1 receptor expression in SCZ patients compared to healthy controls (CON), and in relation with psychopathological symptom severity using positron emission tomography (PET) and the selective high-affinity radioligand [18F]MK-9470.