5HT2 receptor changes in major depression.

The 5HT2 receptor has been studied using quantitative tritium film autoradiography in the postmortem frontal cortex of 15 cases suffering from major depression and controls, matched for age, gender, postmortem delay, and storage time. In unmedicated depressives there was a significant increase in 5HT2 receptor binding over matched control values. Antidepressant-treated depressives dying while depressed had 5HT2 receptor densities not significantly different from control values. Depressives dying euthymic, (i.e., recovered) showed a marked reduction in 5HT2 receptor binding when compared with controls. A tentative hierarchy of 5HT2 receptors in affective states is proposed.