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European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

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01-10-2008 | ORIGINAL PAPER

Biochemical changes in the cingulum in patients with schizophrenia and chronic bipolar disorder

Authors: Fernando Sarramea Crespo, Rogelio Luque, David Prieto, Pablo Sau, Carmen Albert, Itziar Leal, Ana de Luxan, Maria Isabel Osuna, Miguel Ruiz, Rosa Galán, Francisco Cabaleiro, Vicente Molina

Published in: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience | Issue 7/2008

Abstract

Biochemical changes have been reported in vivo in the brain in schizophrenia patients using 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). The aim of this study was to assess the specificity of biochemical changes occurring in schizophrenia patients, in a direct comparison with bipolar disorder patients. Fourteen patients with chronic paranoid schizophrenia, 17 euthymic type I bipolar patients with no previous history of psychotic symptoms and 15 healthy controls were included, most of them were female. They underwent a study with MRS: proton spectra were acquired using a Signa 1.5 T CVI scanner, with a localised single voxel PRESS sequence. N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), Creatine (Cr), and Choline (Cho) metabolite resonance intensities were all quantified in the cingulum, a region of interest in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia patients showed a significantly higher Cho/Cre as well as lower NAA/Cho ratios as compared with controls and bipolar patients. No significant differences were found among the three groups as regards NAA/Cre levels. These data are consistent with an increase in the concentration of choline in the cingulum in chronic schizophrenia, at least in this predominantly female group. Such an increase seems to be more intense than in psychosis-free bipolar disorder patients.

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Title: Biochemical changes in the cingulum in patients with schizophrenia and chronic bipolar disorder
Authors: Fernando Sarramea Crespo
Rogelio Luque
David Prieto
Pablo Sau
Carmen Albert
Itziar Leal
Ana de Luxan
Maria Isabel Osuna
Miguel Ruiz
Rosa Galán
Francisco Cabaleiro
Vicente Molina
Publication date: 01-10-2008
Publisher: D. Steinkopff-Verlag
Published in: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience / Issue 7/2008
Print ISSN: 0940-1334
Electronic ISSN: 1433-8491
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-008-0808-9

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Biochemical changes in the cingulum in patients with schizophrenia and chronic bipolar disorder

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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