Cortical Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid and Glutamate in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Their Relationships to Self-Reported Sleep Quality

Abstract

Low brain gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is consistent with most findings in panic and social anxiety disorders. Low GABA associated with poor sleep quality is consistent with the hyperarousal theory of both primary insomnia and PTSD. Our data demonstrate that poor sleep quality mediates low parieto-occipital GABA in PTSD. The findings have implications for PTSD treatment approaches.

A preliminary examination of cortical neurotransmitter levels associated with heavy drinking in posttraumatic stress disorder

“…1 H MRS has been used to investigate the deregulation of the glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) pathways posited to be involved in the pathophysiology of PTSD (Hageman et al, 2001). In a recent 1 H MRS study comparing PTSD patients with trauma-exposed individuals without PTSD symptoms, we found lower GABA levels in the lateral temporal (TEMP) and parieto-occipital cortices (POC), higher glutamate in TEMP cortex, and lower N -acetylaspartate levels (NAA, a marker of neuronal viability) in prefrontal cortex (Meyerhoff et al, 2014). …”

FGF2 alleviates PTSD symptoms in rats by restoring GLAST function in astrocytes via the JAK/STAT pathway

“…Recent reports demonstrated that the imbalance between excitatory (glutamate) and inhibitory (gamma-aminobutyric acid; GABA) neurotransmitters induce neuronal apoptosis in the hippocampus after stress. Moreover, the extremely high levels of glutamate in the CSF have been associated with mental and behavioral disorders and play an important role in PTSD pathogenesis Meyerhoff et al, 2014;Nie et al, 2014). The uptake of glutamate is primarily mediated by the glial-specific glutamate transporters (van Landeghem et al, 2001) glutamate-aspartate transporter (GLAST) and glutamate transporter 1 (GLT-1) (Dallas et al, 2007).…”

Amelioration of oxidative stress-induced phenotype loss of parvalbumin interneurons might contribute to the beneficial effects of environmental enrichment in a rat model of post-traumatic stress disorder

“…Notably, accumulating evidence has shown that the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration is low in PTSD [24,25] and GAD, an enzyme essential for GABA production, is critically involved in fear memory consolidation [26].…”