Proton spectroscopic imaging of the thalamus in treatment-naive pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder.
BACKGROUND: Neurobiological abnormalities in the thalamus, particularly the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus, are believed to be involved in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although obsessive-compulsive disorder commonly arises in childhood and adolescence, no prior study has examined the thalamus in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder patients. METHODS: In this study, N-acetyl-aspartate, a putative marker of neuronal viability, creatine/phosphocreatine, and choline levels were measured in the lateral and medical subregions of the left and right thalami using a multislice proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging sequence in 11 treatment-naive, nondepressed obsessive-compulsive disorder outpatients, 8-15 years old, and 11 case-matched control subjects. RESULTS: A significant reduction in N-acetyl-aspartate/choline and N-acetyl-aspartate/(creatine/phosphocreatine + choline) was observed in both the right and left medial thalami in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients compared with control subjects. The N-acetyl-aspartate/choline and N-acetyl-aspartate/(creatine/phosphocreatine + choline) levels did not differ significantly between case-control pairs in either the left or the right lateral thalamus. Reduction in N-acetyl-aspartate levels in the left medial thalamus was inversely correlated with increased obsessive-compulsive disorder symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide new evidence of localized functional neurochemical marker abnormalities in the thalamus in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. Our results must be considered preliminary, however, given the small sample size.[1]References
- Proton spectroscopic imaging of the thalamus in treatment-naive pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. Fitzgerald, K.D., Moore, G.J., Paulson, L.A., Stewart, C.M., Rosenberg, D.R. Biol. Psychiatry (2000) [Pubmed]
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