ABSTRACT
The use of tissue obtained at autopsy from subjects with psychiatric disorders has slowly gained credence because they have begun to provide reproducible and robust data. Such consistent outcomes have been achieved by increasing care in controlling for confounding variables such as tissue collection, tissue preservation, donor medication and postmortem delay. More recently, studies using positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT) have also provided information on the molecular changes underlying schizophrenia. Thus, in future these two approaches to investigating molecular changes underlying psychiatric illness should provide complimentary and confirmatory data on the pathology of such illnesses. To demonstrate this point, outcomes of the study of three major neurotransmitter systems in schizophrenia, using both approaches, is reviewed.
