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Abstract #2155

MRS Measurement of GABA and Glutamate-Glutamine in Frontal Cortex in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Lawrence Steven Kegeles1,2, H. Blair Simpson1, Xiangling Mao3, Rena Staub1, Dikoma C. Shungu3

1Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States; 2Radiology, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States; 3Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY, United States


This MRS study addressed GABA and glutamate-glutamine levels in a hypothesized abnormal neurochemical circuit in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Recent animal and human studies have implicated the glutamate system in OCD in these abnormalities. We used the J edited spin echo difference method to evaluate glutamate-glutamine and GABA in two frontal cortical regions, the anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in OCD. We found no differences between OCD subjects and controls in either measure in either brain region, suggesting that further studies are needed to fully characterize the neurochemistry of the hypothesized abnormal circuitry in OCD.