Preliminary Results
NAA may be reduced in the hippocampus for certain PTSD patient populations.  It is not yet clear if this reduction predates the PTSD, results from the PTSD, or arises from confounding factors such as alcoholism.  Further studies are in progress to correlate NAA levels with hippocampal atrophy as measured by MRI, and to determine if NAA levels decrease with time in PTSD patients.

References

1. Freeman TW, Cardwell D, Karson CN, Komoroski RA. In vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the medial temporal lobes of subjects with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Magn Reson Med 1998;40:66-71.
2. Brown S, Freeman T, Kimbrell T, Cardwell D, Komoroski R. In vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the medial temporal lobes of former prisoners of war with and without posttraumatic stress disorder. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 2003;15:367-370.

Researchers
Richard A. Komoroski, Ph.D. is the principal investigator on this project, as well as for the phospholipid metabolism in schizophrenia study.  Diana M. Lindquist, Ph.D. is also involved in this study, as well as other MRS studies. 

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