Mareen Hoerst1, Wolfgang Weber-Fahr1, Nuran Tunc-Skarka1, Matthias Ruf1, Christian Schmahl2, Gabriele Ende1
1Department of Neuroimaging, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany; 2Department of Psychosomatic and Psychotherapeutic Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been implicated in the pathophysiology of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Several studies have reported anatomical and functional abnormalities in this region in BPD patients. To date only one other study, however, has evaluated the ACC with 1H MRS in BPD patients. In this study we aimed to determine the absolute concentrations of the metabolites in the ACC of 20 unmedicated female patients with BPD and 22 healthy controls. We found a significant decrease of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), total creatine (tCr) and glutamate (Glu) in the ACC of patients with BPD compared to healthy control.