Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and thought disorder in childhood schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE Although magnetic resonance spectroscopy has identified metabolic abnormalities in adult and childhood schizophrenia, no prior studies have investigated the relationship between neurometabolites and thought disorder. This study examined this association in language-related brain regions using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging ((1)H MRSI). METHOD MRSI was acquired bilaterally from 28 youth with childhood-onset schizophrenia and 34 healthy control subjects in inferior frontal, middle frontal, and superior temporal gyri at 1.5T and short echo time (TR/TE = 1500/30 ms). CSF-corrected "total NAA" (tNAA; N-acetyl-aspartate + N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate), glutamate + glutamine (Glx), creatine + phosphocreatine (Cr + PCr), choline compounds (Cho), and myo-inositol (mI) were assayed in manually drawn regions-of-interest partitioned into gray matter, white matter, and CSF and then coregistered with MRSI. Speech samples of all subjects were coded for thought disorder. RESULTS In the schizophrenia group, the severity of formal thought disorder correlated significantly with tNAA in the left inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri and with Cr + PCr in left superior temporal gyrus. CONCLUSIONS Neurometabolite concentrations in language-related brain regions are associated with thought disorder in childhood-onset schizophrenia.