Abstract #2164

Cortical GABA and Glutamate Changes in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Anderson Mon^1,2, Thomas Neylan³, Dieter Meyerhoff^1,4

¹Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; ²Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Veteran Administration Medical Center, San Francisco, CA; ³Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; ⁴Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Veteran Administration Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States

We studied NAA, Glu and GABA levels in post traumatic stress disorder using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We found lower NAA in the anterior cingulate, lower GABA in the posterior occipital cortex, and lower GABA and higher Glu in the medial temporal lobe as compared to control subjects. Metabolite levels related to PTSD symptomatology and suggest neuronal injury, perhaps associated with excitatory and inhibitory processes in cortical brain