Functional sites of neuroleptic drug action in the human brain: PET/FDG studies with and without haloperidol

Abstract

It appears that 5 days of neuroleptic withdrawal are inadequate to escape the effects of neuroleptic drugs on regional cerebral glucose metabolism. The pattern and localization of changes in metabolic activity between the haloperidol condition and the 30-day drug-free condition suggest that haloperidol exerts its primary antidopaminergic action in the basal ganglia. It is proposed that the additional changes in the thalamus and cortex are secondary to this primary site of drug action, mediated through classically described striato-thalamo-cortical pathways.