Glutamate, glutamine, NAA, and GABA levels in hippocampus in schizophrenia as measured by 1H-MRS at 3T

INTRODUCTION Schizophrenia is a debilitating disease whose phenomenology has long been recognized, but the pathophysiology has only been partially understood. Although multiple brain regions appear to be affected in the disease, there is convergent evidence for hippocampus involvement. Alterations in this area have been documented by both neuroimaging and postmortem studies [1,2]. Based upon pharmacological challenge and postmortem chemistry, glutamate transmission decrease appears to be one of the prevailing mechanistic explanations of the disease [3]. Numerous 1H-MRS studies have focused on assessment of glutamate and glutamine concentration in the hippocampus in schizophrenia [4,5]. Here, we present 1H-MRS measurements of glutamate (Glu), glutamine (Gln), N-acetylaspartate (NAA), and GABA in the hippocampus in patients with schizophrenia at 3T.