BACKGROUND: Despite widely replicated abnormalities of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons in schizophrenia postmortem, few studies have measured tissue GABA levels in vivo. We used proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure tissue GABA levels in participants with schizophrenia and healthy control subjects in the anterior cingulate cortex and parieto-occipital cortex. METHODS: Twenty-one schizophrenia participants effectively treated on a stable medication regimen (mean age 39.0, 14 male) and 19 healthy control subjects (mean age 36.3, 12 male) underwent a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy scan using GABA-selective editing at 4 Tesla after providing informed consent. Data were collected from two 16.7-mL voxels and analyzed using LCModel. RESULTS: We found elevations in GABA/creatine in the schizophrenia group compared with control subjects [F(1,65) = 4.149, p = .046] in both brain areas (15.5% elevation in anterior cingulate cortex, 11.9% in parieto-occipital cortex). We also found a positive correlation between GABA/creatine and glutamate/creatine, which was not accounted for by % GM or brain region. CONCLUSIONS: We found elevated GABA/creatinine in participants with chronically treated schizophrenia. Postmortem studies report evidence for dysfunctional GABAergic neurotransmission in schizophrenia. Elevated GABA levels, whether primary to illness or compensatory to another process, may be associated with dysfunctional GABAergic neurotransmission in chronic schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND: Despite widely replicated abnormalities of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons in schizophrenia postmortem, few studies have measured tissue GABA levels in vivo. We used proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure tissue GABA levels in participants with schizophrenia and healthy control subjects in the anterior cingulate cortex and parieto-occipital cortex. METHODS: Twenty-one schizophreniaparticipants effectively treated on a stable medication regimen (mean age 39.0, 14 male) and 19 healthy control subjects (mean age 36.3, 12 male) underwent a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy scan using GABA-selective editing at 4 Tesla after providing informed consent. Data were collected from two 16.7-mL voxels and analyzed using LCModel. RESULTS: We found elevations in GABA/creatine in the schizophrenia group compared with control subjects [F(1,65) = 4.149, p = .046] in both brain areas (15.5% elevation in anterior cingulate cortex, 11.9% in parieto-occipital cortex). We also found a positive correlation between GABA/creatine and glutamate/creatine, which was not accounted for by % GM or brain region. CONCLUSIONS: We found elevated GABA/creatinine in participants with chronically treated schizophrenia. Postmortem studies report evidence for dysfunctional GABAergic neurotransmission in schizophrenia. Elevated GABA levels, whether primary to illness or compensatory to another process, may be associated with dysfunctional GABAergic neurotransmission in chronic schizophrenia.
Authors: B W McCarthy; U R Gomes; A C Neethling; B C Shanley; J J Taljaard; L Potgieter; J T Roux Journal: J Neurochem Date: 1981-04 Impact factor: 5.372
Authors: Dost Ongür; Andrew P Prescot; J Eric Jensen; Elizabeth D Rouse; Bruce M Cohen; Perry F Renshaw; David P Olson Journal: Magn Reson Med Date: 2010-01 Impact factor: 4.668
Authors: Allison A Curley; Dominique Arion; David W Volk; Josephine K Asafu-Adjei; Allan R Sampson; Kenneth N Fish; David A Lewis Journal: Am J Psychiatry Date: 2011-06-01 Impact factor: 18.112
Authors: Stefano Marenco; Matthew Geramita; Jan Willem van der Veen; Alan S Barnett; Bhaskar Kolachana; Jun Shen; Daniel R Weinberger; Amanda J Law Journal: J Neurosci Date: 2011-08-10 Impact factor: 6.167
Authors: Mark Mikkelsen; Peter B Barker; Pallab K Bhattacharyya; Maiken K Brix; Pieter F Buur; Kim M Cecil; Kimberly L Chan; David Y-T Chen; Alexander R Craven; Koen Cuypers; Michael Dacko; Niall W Duncan; Ulrike Dydak; David A Edmondson; Gabriele Ende; Lars Ersland; Fei Gao; Ian Greenhouse; Ashley D Harris; Naying He; Stefanie Heba; Nigel Hoggard; Tun-Wei Hsu; Jacobus F A Jansen; Alayar Kangarlu; Thomas Lange; R Marc Lebel; Yan Li; Chien-Yuan E Lin; Jy-Kang Liou; Jiing-Feng Lirng; Feng Liu; Ruoyun Ma; Celine Maes; Marta Moreno-Ortega; Scott O Murray; Sean Noah; Ralph Noeske; Michael D Noseworthy; Georg Oeltzschner; James J Prisciandaro; Nicolaas A J Puts; Timothy P L Roberts; Markus Sack; Napapon Sailasuta; Muhammad G Saleh; Michael-Paul Schallmo; Nicholas Simard; Stephan P Swinnen; Martin Tegenthoff; Peter Truong; Guangbin Wang; Iain D Wilkinson; Hans-Jörg Wittsack; Hongmin Xu; Fuhua Yan; Chencheng Zhang; Vadim Zipunnikov; Helge J Zöllner; Richard A E Edden Journal: Neuroimage Date: 2017-07-14 Impact factor: 6.556
Authors: Jong H Yoon; Richard J Maddock; Edward DongBo Cui; Michael J Minzenberg; Tara A Niendam; Tyler Lesh; Marjorie Solomon; J Daniel Ragland; Cameron Carter Journal: Schizophr Res Date: 2019-11-06 Impact factor: 4.939
Authors: Nina Vanessa Kraguljac; Meredith Reid; David White; Rebecca Jones; Jan den Hollander; Deborah Lowman; Adrienne Carol Lahti Journal: Psychiatry Res Date: 2012-09-13 Impact factor: 3.222
Authors: Camilo de la Fuente-Sandoval; Francisco Reyes-Madrigal; Xiangling Mao; Pablo León-Ortiz; Oscar Rodríguez-Mayoral; Helgi Jung-Cook; Rodolfo Solís-Vivanco; Ariel Graff-Guerrero; Dikoma C Shungu Journal: Biol Psychiatry Date: 2017-10-10 Impact factor: 13.382