A randomized placebo controlled trial demonstrates the effect of dl-methylephedrine on brain functions is weaker than that of pseudoephedrine.

Intellectual drug doping in athletics by using stimulants that affect central nervous system functions has been diversified. Stimulants are regulated by the World Anti-Doping Agency according to their levels of urinary concentration. Positron emission tomography could evaluate how stimulants affect central nervous system functions.

Depression as a Prodromal Symptom of Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Neurodegenerative diseases can manifest as psychiatric symptoms in the prodromal phase, before the onset of core symptoms such as neurological, motor, and cognitive symptoms. Positron emission tomography (PET) has made it possible to detect the pathology of some neurodegenerative diseases in vivo. Many studies have indicated that depression is a preclinical symptom of neurodegenerative diseases.

Effect of DL-Methylephedrine on Dopamine Transporter Using Positron Emission Tomography With [F]FE-PE2I.

Rationale: Since ephedrine has a dopamine transporter (DAT) inhibitory effect similar to amphetamine, dl-methylephedrine, a derivative of ephedrine, is considered to have the characteristics of a central nervous system stimulant due to the DAT inhibitory effect. For example, the World Anti-Doping Agency categorizes dl-methylephedrine as a stimulant in the prohibited list for competitions. Assuming to have the same effect as ephedrine, the urinary concentration of dl-methylephedrine is regulated below 10 μg/mL, as is ephedrine.

A positron emission tomography study of the serotonin1B receptor effect of electroconvulsive therapy for severe major depressive episodes.

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for depressive disorders, although its molecular mechanism of action is unknown. The serotonin 1B (5-HT) receptor is a potential target for treatment of depression and low 5-HT receptor binding in limbic regions has been reported in previous positron emission tomography (PET) studies of depression.

Methods: The objective of this longitudinal PET study was to examine the effect of ECT for depression on 5-HT receptor binding.

Multi-Atlas MRI-Based Striatum Segmentation for I-FP-CIT SPECT (DAT-SPECT) Compared With the Bolt Method and SPECT-Atlas-Based Segmentation Method Toward the Accurate Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease/Syndrome.

This study aimed to analyze the performance of multi-atlas MRI-based parcellation for I-FP-CIT SPECT (DAT-SPECT) in healthy volunteers. The proposed method was compared with the SPECT-atlas-based and Bolt methods. F-FE-PE2I-PET (DAT-PET) was used as a reference.