BRAIN IMAGINGSpecific creatine rise in learned helplessness induced by electroconvulsive shock treatmentSartorius, AlexanderCA; Vollmayr, Barbara; Neumann-Haefelin, Claudia1; Ende, Gabriele; Hoehn, Mathias1; Henn, Fritz A.Author Information Central Institute of Mental Health, J5, D-68159 Mannheim 1Department of Experimental Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research, Cologne, Germany CACorresponding Author: sascha@zi-mannheim.de Received 30 May 2003; accepted 8 July 2003 NeuroReport: December 2nd, 2003 - Volume 14 - Issue 17 - p 2199-2201 Buy SDC Abstract Metabolic changes in the hippocampus formation can be investigated with in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Learned helplessness (LH) is a well validated animal model of depression which we established in Sprague–Dawley rats defining some as “learned helpless” (LH) or not “learned helpless” (NLH). Helpless and non-helpless rats received a course of daily administered electroconvulsive shocks (ECS) for 6 days. MRS measurements were performed on a 4.7 T animal scanner with an average voxel size within the rat hippocampus of 10 μl. In LH rats hippocampal creatine/NAA rose significantly (14%) whereas creatine/NAA of NLH rats showed no increase at all. A possible connection between hippocampal creatine levels and major depressive disorders as a reflection of changes in energy metabolism is discussed. © 2003 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
