N-acetyl Aspartate Levels in Adolescents With Bipolar and/or Cannabis Use Disorders |
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Authors: | Samantha M. Bitter BS Wade A. Weber MS Wen-Jang Chu PhD Caleb M. Adler MD James C. Eliassen PhD Stephen M. Strakowski MD |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychiatry &2. Behavioral Neuroscience, Division of Bipolar Disorder Research , University of Cincinnati College of Medicine , Cincinnati , Ohio , USA;3. University Research Council's (URC)?Undergraduate Student Research Fellowship, University of Cincinnati , Cincinnati , Ohio , USA;4. School of Energy, Environmental, Biological and Medical Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science , University of Cincinnati , Cincinnati , Ohio , USA;5. Behavioral Neuroscience, Division of Bipolar Disorder Research , University of Cincinnati College of Medicine , Cincinnati , Ohio , USA;6. Center for Imaging Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience , University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center , Cincinnati , Ohio , USA;7. Center for Imaging Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience , University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center , Cincinnati , Ohio , USA |
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Abstract: | Objective: Bipolar and cannabis use disorders commonly co-occur during adolescence, and neurochemical studies may help clarify the pathophysiology underlying this co-occurrence. This study compared metabolite concentrations in the left ventral lateral prefrontal cortex among adolescents with bipolar disorder (bipolar group; n = 14), adolescents with a cannabis use disorder (cannabis use group; n = 13), adolescents with cannabis use and bipolar disorders (bipolar and cannabis group; n = 25), and healthy adolescents (healthy controls; n = 15). We hypothesized that adolescents with bipolar disorder (with or without cannabis use disorder) would have decreased N-acetyl aspartate levels in the ventral lateral prefrontal cortex compared to the other groups and that the bipolar and cannabis group would have the lowest N-acetyl aspartate levels of all groups. Methods: N-acetyl aspartate concentrations in the left ventral lateral prefrontal cortex were obtained using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Results: Adolescents with bipolar disorder showed significantly lower left ventral lateral prefrontal cortex N-acetyl aspartate levels, but post hoc analyses indicated that this was primarily due to increased N-acetyl aspartate levels in the cannabis group. The cannabis use disorder group had significantly higher N-acetyl aspartate levels compared to the bipolar disorder and the bipolar and cannabis groups (p = .0002 and p = .0002, respectively). Pearson correlations revealed a significant positive correlation between amount of cannabis used and N-acetyl aspartate concentrations. Conclusions: Adolescents with cannabis use disorder showed higher levels of N-acetyl aspartate concentrations that were significantly positively associated with the amount of cannabis used; however, this finding was not present in adolescents with comorbid bipolar disorder. |
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Keywords: | magnetic resonance spectroscopy 1H-MRS N-acetyl aspartate NAA bipolar disorder cannabis use marijuana adolescents |
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