ABSTRACT

Most of the symptoms of schizophrenia bring mind the symptoms of temporal area illnesses. 1H-MRS studies carried out on schizophrenia patients focused especially on temporal and frontal lobes and basal ganglions. In this study, it was aimed to detect the 1H-MRS findings of left temporal lobe in patients with Schizophrenia. Twenty seven patients diagnosed to have schizophrenia according to the criteria of DSM-IV and 10 healthy control cases were included in the study. The symptoms of schizophrenia were assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, The Assessment of Positive Symptoms Scale and The Assessment of Negative Symptoms Scale. All the spectroscopic images were collected with the same MRI device. Patients with schizophrenia had a higher level of creatine and a lower level of Nacetyl aspartate/creatine ratio when compared to the control group. Other metabolite levels in the study group were similar to those of the control group. In addition, there was no significant correlation between the metabolite levels and clinical characteristics and scale ratios. The findings in this study indicate a hipometabolic state and loss of neurons due to the depletion of N-acetyl aspartate/creatine levels in the left temporal lobes of the Schizophrenia patients. Our results support those who advocate the theory that Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder.