Brain 5-hydroxytryptamine uptake sites labeled with [3H]paroxetine in antidepressant drug-treated depressed suicide victims and controls.

Saturation binding of [3H]paroxetine was performed in 10 brain regions from a group of suicide victims who had a firm, retrospective diagnosis of depression and who had been prescribed antidepressant drugs, as well as in a group of controls. The number of binding sites did not differ significantly between suicide victims and controls, apart from in putamen, where a lower number of sites was found in the suicide victims. Higher dissociation constant (Kd) values were found in suicide victims dying by antidepressant overdose and also in those dying by other means when compared with controls.