Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) in Psychiatric Diseases

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) has become the method of choice to investigate brain chemical abnormalities, especially in psychiatric diseases. In this chapter, we will cover a few brain metabolites that can be reliably measured with MRS method, namely, N-acetylaspartate (NAA), glutamate (Glu), glutamine (Gln), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and glutathione (GSH) in schizophrenia, dementia, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, and human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV). This review will not cover detailed MRS methods but will refer readers to appropriate review articles on the subjects. Due to space limitation, a few references are given in each section; these references should reflect existing MRS clinical studies for each brain disease.