Persistent β₂*-Nicotinic Acetylcholinergic Receptor Dysfunction in Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Depressed patients have lower β2*-nAChR availability than do healthy subjects. The difference between β2*-nAChR availability in vivo and in post-mortem samples may be analogous to data with dopaminergic PET ligands and dopamine receptor availability; lower receptor availability for the SPECT ligand could be caused by greater endogenous acetylcholine.