Project Summary

Raymond F. Deicken, M.S., M.D. (Independent Investigator 2004) of San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center/University of California, San Francisco, plans on using an imaging technique, called in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI), to better characterize bipolar disorder. MRSI studies in the brains of people with bipolar disease have shown decreased N-acetylaspartate (NAA) levels in the hippocampus and prefrontal regions. Reductions in NAA may represent neuronal or axonal loss, dysfunction or damage. In the proposed study, Dr. Deicken aims to further study NAA in the hippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and prefrontal white matter (PFWM) in a group of familial bipolar I patients, their unaffected siblings, and healthy control subjects utilizing MRSI. The goal is to determine if there is quantitative evidence within sibling pairs that NAA levels are reduced in the hippocampus, DLPFC, or PFWM and if there is qualitative evidence based on relative risk estimates that NAA reductions in the hippocampus, DLPFC, and PFWM represent bipolar disease.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Bipolar

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