RESEARCH ARTICLE Safety of Oral Amphetamine Administered during Positron Emission Tomography Scans in Medically Screened Humans

Changes in endogenous dopamine levels can be detected in humans using positron emis-sion tomography scans by measuring the amount by which a specific D2/3 radioligand is dis-placed. In some cases, a challenge drug such as amphetamine is introduced to increase the amount of dopamine released into the synaptic cleft. Although intravenous amphet-amine is often utilized, oral amphetamine has been shown to be just as effective in increas-ing endogenous dopamine levels. Based on our own use of oral amphetamine as a challenge drug, we have retroactively reviewed our study charts to determine the cardiovas-cular safety of 0.5 mg kg-1 oral d-amphetamine. Of 172 amphetamine administrations in 144 individuals, only 2.8 % of subjects experienced any transient adverse effects. In addition, we found no clinically relevant differences in increases of vital signs between healthy controls and patients. We therefore reaffirm the safety of 0.5 mg kg-1 oral amphetamine in subjects previously screened for cardiovascular risk factors