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Research paper
Serotonin transporter binding and anxiety symptoms in Parkinson’s disease
  1. Merijn Joling1,2,3,4,
  2. Odile A van den Heuvel3,4,5,
  3. Henk W Berendse1,3,
  4. Jan Booij2,3,
  5. Chris Vriend3,4,5
  1. 1 Department of Neurology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  2. 2 Department of Nuclear Medicine, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  3. 3 Research Program Neurodegeneration, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  4. 4 Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  5. 5 Department of Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Merijn Joling, Department of Neurology, VU University Medical Center, P.O. Box 7057, 1007 MB Amsterdam, The Netherlands; me.joling{at}vumc.nl

Abstract

Background Anxiety is a common neuropsychiatric symptom in Parkinson’s disease (PD), yet the neural mechanisms have been scarcely investigated. Disturbances in dopaminergic and serotonergic signalling may play a role in its pathophysiology. 123I-N-ω-fluoropropyl-2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)nortropane (123I-FP-CIT) is a single-photon emission CT radiotracer, and its binding in striatal and extrastriatal subcortical brain areas represents predominant binding to the presynaptic dopamine transporter (DAT) and the serotonin transporter (SERT), respectively. Availability of DAT and SERT may thus provide an in vivo measure for the integrity of both dopamine and serotonin neurons.

Methods We studied the association between anxiety symptoms, measured with an affective subscale of the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and (extra)striatal 123I-FP-CIT binding in 127 non-demented patients with PD with a median disease duration of 2.55 (IQR 2.90) years. We conducted the analyses on patients currently on or not on dopamine replacement therapy (DRT).

Results Severity of anxiety symptoms showed a significant negative association with 123I-FP-CIT binding ratios in the right thalamus (β=−0.203, p=0.019; ΔR2=0.040) (multiple testing pcorr <0.020). In the subgroup of patients not on DRT (n=81), we found a significant negative association between anxiety and thalamic 123I-FP-CIT binding ratios bilaterally (right: β=−0.349, p=0.001, ΔR2=0.119; left: β=−0.269, p=0.017, ΔR2=0.071) (pcorr <0.020).

Conclusion This study shows that higher levels of anxiety in patients with PD are associated with lower thalamic 123I-FP-CIT binding, pointing towards a contribution of serotonergic degeneration to anxiety symptoms in PD.

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Footnotes

  • Contributors MJ: planning, conducting, analysis and writing. OAvdH: planning, analysis and writing. HWB: planning, consulting, reading and correcting manuscript. JB: planning, consulting, reading and correcting manuscript. CV: planning, conducting, analysis and writing.

  • Funding MJ’s salary was paid by a research grant from GE Healthcare (paid to the institution). HWB is coapplicant of research grants obtained from GE Healthcare and Roche (paid to the institution). JB is consultant at GE Healthcare and received research grants from GE Healthcare (paid to the institution). GE Healthcare did not play a role in the design of the current study, collection and analysis of the data, and the decision to publish. CV’s salary was in part paid by a research grant from GE Healthcare (paid to the institution).

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Ethics approval Local medical ethics committee.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.