Clinical disorders known to affect inherited gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) metabolism are autosomal recessively inherited succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase and GABA-transaminase deficiency. The clinical presentation of succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficiency includes intellectual disability, ataxia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and epilepsy with a nonprogressive course in typical cases, although a progressive form in early childhood as well as deterioration in adulthood with worsening epilepsy are reported. GABA-transaminase deficiency is associated with a severe neonatal-infantile epileptic encephalopathy.

Background and Objectives Inherited disorders of GABA metabolism include SSADH and GABA-transaminase deficiencies. The clinical features, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of both are discussed, including an updated list of ALDH5A1 mutations causing SSADH deficiency. Methods Our SSADH patient database was analyzed and murine and translational studies leading to clinical trials are reviewed. Results The database containing 112 SSADH-deficient patients (71 pediatric and adolescent subjects, 41 adults) indicates that developmental delay and hypotonia are the most common presenting symptoms. Epilepsy is present in 2/3 of patients by adulthood. Murine genetic model, and human studies using flumazenil-PET and transcranial magnetic stimulation, have led to therapeutic trials and identified additional metabolic disruptions. Suggestions for new therapies have arisen from findings of GABAergic effects on autophagy with enhanced activation of the mTor pathway. A total of 45 pathogenic mutations have been reported in SSADH deficiency including the discovery of three previously unreported. Conclusions Investigations into the disorders of GABA metabolism provide fundamental insights into mechanisms underlying epilepsy and support the development of biomarkers and clinical trials. Comprehensive definition of the phenotypes of both SSADH and GABA-T deficiencies may increase our knowledge of the neurophysiological consequences of a hyperGABAergic state.

We identified patients older than 18 years with SSADH deficiency in our database following identification and review of a patient diagnosed in the seventh decade of life. The illness had a progressive course with escalating seizures in the index case, with fatality at age 63. Diagnosis in adulthood is rare. Epilepsy is more common in the adult than the pediatric SSADH deficiency cohort; neuropsychiatric morbidity remains prominent.