Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-MRS) of the cerebellum in men with schizophrenia

Objective: To investigate whether there are cerebellar vermis abnormalities in schizophrenia. Design: Prospective imaging study with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-MRS). Setting: Schizophrenia clinic at a large urban hospital. Patients and controls: Twelve right-handed male patients with schizophrenia, and 12 control subjects with no psychiatric history. Interventions: MRS data were acquired from a 2.0 × 2.0 × 2.0 cm volume of interest that included the entire cerebellar vermis. Outcome measures: Spectral peak arising from N-acetylaspartate (NAA), phosphocreatine/creatine (Cr) and choline (Cho). Results: There were no significant differences between the patients with schizophrenia and the controls in cerebellar vermis ratios of NAA to Cr (p = 0.71) or Cho to Cr (p = 0.50). Conclusions: This study does not support earlier structural studies that found abnormalities of the cerebellar vermis in schizophrenia, although it does support reported neurochemical studies. It does not rule out cerebellar involvement in schizophrenia through mechanisms such as aberrant circuitry. Larger in vivo structural/neurochemical and functional imaging studies in other parts of the cerebellum are needed.