Glutamate levels and symptom burden in high-risk and first-episode schizophrenia: a dual-voxel study of the anterior cingulate cortex.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Reduced glutamatergic excitability of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been long suspected in schizophrenia; recent observations support low glutamatergic tone as the primary pathophysiology contributing to subtle early features of this illness, with a secondary disinhibition (higher glutamate tone) resulting in more prominent clinical symptoms later in its course. We sought to investigate whether people with genetic high risk (GHR) for schizophrenia have lower glutamate levels in the ACC than those at later stages of clinical high risk (CHR) and those with first-episode schizophrenia (FES), among whom symptoms are already prominent.

Methods

We recruited people with CHR, GHR, or FES, as well as healthy controls. Using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy,

SUBMITTER: Fan L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11573428 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature