Neurometabolic abnormalities in schizophrenia and depression observed with magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 7 T

BACKGROUND Examining neurometabolic abnormalities in critical brain areas in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD) may help guide future pharmacological interventions including glutamate-modulating treatments. AIMS To measure metabolite concentrations within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and thalamus of people with schizophrenia and people with MDD. METHODS Spectra were acquired from 16 volunteers with schizophrenia, 17 with MDD and 18 healthy controls using magnetic resonance spectroscopy on a 7 Tesla scanner. RESULTS In the thalamus, there were lower glycine concentrations in the schizophrenia group relative to control (P=0.017) and MDD groups (P=0.012), and higher glutamine concentrations relative to healthy controls (P=0.009). In the thalamus and the ACC, the MDD group had lower myo-inositol concentrations than the control (P=0.014, P=0.009, respectively) and schizophrenia (P=0.004, P=0.002, respectively) groups. CONCLUSION These results support the glutamatergic theory of schizophrenia and indicate a potential glycine deficiency in the thalamus. In addition, reduced myo-inositol concentrations in MDD suggest its involvement in the disorder. DECLARATION OF INTEREST None. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2017. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license.