Thomas et al (2001)
autopsy study of brain levels of apoD (ug/mg)
•
•
•
• schiz bipolar controls
• n=20    n=8   n=19
•% using APs                 90%  (18) 75% (6)                        0
•
•DLPFC 0.244 0.233 0.115
•caudate 0.132 0.112 0.059
•
•
•
•
•
•      
•        apoD levels were 2X higher in users of APs
•
•
•
•
•APs = antipsychotic drugs (1st generation and clozapine)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
In a postmortem investigation of psychiatric patients who had received treatment with various kinds of antipsychotic drugs, researchers evaluated the levels of apoD in two different regions of the brain.

Brain Region         Tootsie Pop Equivalent
DLPFC = dorsolateral prefrontal cortex     candy coating
caudate = region of the subcortex     tootsie roll center

Study Design:
The study compared two groups of medicated subjects (20 diagnosed with schizophrenia, 8 diagnosed with bipolar disorder) and one group of mentally healthy controls.  75-90% of the psychiatric patients had received treatment with antipsychotic drugs, consisting of 1st generation drugs or clozapine.

When compared to drug-naive controls, patients exposed to antipsychotics had apoD levels that were two times higher in the cortical and subcortical zones of the brain.