Binding of a tritiated inverse agonist to cannabinoid CB1 receptors is increased in patients with schizophrenia.

This study sought to determine whether cannabinoid-1 (CB(1)) receptor binding was altered in the postmortem dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of individuals with schizophrenia (schizophrenia; n=47) compared to controls (n=43). The CB(1) receptor inverse agonist radioligand [(3)H]MePPEP was used to measure specific binding to CB(1) receptors. The specific binding of [(3)H]MePPEP to CB(1) receptors was 20% higher in patients with schizophrenia than in controls. Power analyses suggested that 53 subjects per group would be needed to detect a similar difference in vivo with positron emission tomography (PET) and the structurally related inverse agonist radioligand [(18)F]FMPEP-d(2) (80% statistical power, p<0.05).