Somatostatin and neuropeptide Y are unaltered in the amygdala in schizophrenia.

Although a biochemical abnormality has been postulated in the etiology of schizophrenia, evidence supporting this hypothesis has been conflicting. Because of the presence of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI) in limbic system nuclei of the brain, we examined postmortem concentrations of SLI in patients dying with schizophrenia and in normal controls. Concentrations of SLI in Brodmann cortical area 38, hippocampus, caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens, and both segments of the globus pallidus were not significantly different from controls. In addition, we examined both SLI and neuropeptide-Y-like immunoreactivity (NPYLI) in subnuclei of the amygdala and the substantia innominata. There were no significant alterations in either neuropeptide as compared with controls.