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Altered neurochemistry in the anterior white matter of bipolar children and adolescents: a multivoxel 1H MRS study

Molecular Psychiatry volume 26, pages 4117–4126 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Abnormalities within frontal lobe gray and white matter of bipolar disorder (BD) patients have been consistently reported in adult and pediatric studies, yet little is known about the neurochemistry of the anterior white matter (AWM) in pediatric BD and how medication status may affect it. The present cross-sectional 3T 1H MRS study is the first to use a multivoxel approach to study the AWM of BD youth. Absolute metabolite levels from four bilateral AWM voxels were collected from 49 subjects between the ages of 8 and 18 (25 healthy controls (HC); 24 BD) and quantified. Our study found BD subjects to have lower levels of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and glycerophosphocholine plus phosphocholine (GPC + PC), metabolites that are markers of neuronal viability and phospholipid metabolism and have also been implicated in adult BD. Further analysis indicated that the observed patterns were mostly driven by BD subjects who were medicated at the time of scanning and had an ADHD diagnosis. Although limited by possible confounding effects of mood state, medication, and other mood comorbidities, these findings serve as evidence of altered neurochemistry in BD youth that is sensitive to medication status and ADHD comorbidity.

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Fig. 1: Voxel locations. Metabolite levels were quantified from four voxels in the anterior white matter.
Fig. 2: Metabolite levels by subject group.

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Acknowledgements

The research reported was supported in part by NIMH grant R01 085667, the Dunn Foundation, and the Pat Rutherford, Jr. Endowed Chair in Psychiatry to JCS.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Jonika Tannous, Bo Cao

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UT Center of Excellence on Mood Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX, USA

    Jonika Tannous, Giovana B. Zunta-Soares, Benson Mwangi, Marsal Sanches & Jair C. Soares

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Bo Cao

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Jeffrey A. Stanley

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  1. Jonika Tannous
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Correspondence to Jonika Tannous.

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JCS has received grants/research support from BMS, Forrest, J&J, Merck, Stanley Medical Research Institute, NIH and has been a speaker for Pfizer and Abbott. No other authors have conflicts to declare.

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Tannous, J., Cao, B., Stanley, J.A. et al. Altered neurochemistry in the anterior white matter of bipolar children and adolescents: a multivoxel 1H MRS study. Mol Psychiatry 26, 4117–4126 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00927-9

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