ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2012
Reduced γ-aminobutyric acid in occipital and anterior cingulate cortices in primary insomnia: a link to major depressive disorder?
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 151 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Brain GABA levels across psychiatric disorders: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of (1) H-MRS studies.Human brain mapping · 2016Pooled it
- Predicting treatment response to transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in patients with insomnia: resting-state functional connectivity based multivoxel pattern analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Effects of bifrontal-transcranial direct current stimulation combined with music listening on sleep quality, cortical activation and functional connectivity in patients with insomnia: a randomised controlled trial by fNIRS.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Acupuncture modulates emotional network resting-state functional connectivity in patients with insomnia disorder: a randomized controlled trial and fMRI study.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2024Trial
- Fatigue in major depression is linked to depression severity, not sleep duration or anterior cingulate cortex neurochemistry.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Insomnia disorder.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- Mechanisms Linking Insomnia and Cardiometabolic Disease Risk.Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology · 2026Review
- Insomnia Phenotypes, Cardiovascular Risk and Their Link to Brain Health.Circulation research · 2025Review
- Efficacy and mechanism of long-snake moxibustion for treating insomnia in breast cancer survivors: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) for Insomnia Disorder: A Narrative Review of Effectiveness, Mechanisms and Recommendations for Clinical Practice.Nature and science of sleep · 2025Review
- Optimization of physicochemical properties of theophylline by forming cocrystals with amino acids.RSC advances · 2024Article
- Static and temporal dynamic alterations of regional homogeneity in chronic insomnia: a resting-state fMRI study.Sleep and biological rhythms · 2024Article
- Gut microbiome and metabolic pathways linked to sleep quality.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Gut microbiota: a potential influencer of insomnia occurring after COVID-19 infection.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Production and quality evaluation of a novel γ-aminobutyric acid-enriched yogurt.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Elevated peripheral glutamate and upregulated expression of NMDA receptor NR1 subunit in insomnia disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Prolonged Zaleplon Treatment Increases the Expression of Proteins Involved in GABAergic and Glutamatergic Signaling in the Rat Hippocampus.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Cortical GABA Levels Are Reduced in Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- The Effect of γ-Aminobutyric Acid Intake on UVB- Induced Skin Damage in Hairless Mice.Biomolecules & therapeutics · 2023Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Insomnia is closely related to major depressive disorder (MDD) both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and as such, offers potential opportunities to refine our understanding of the neurobiology of both sleep and mood disorders. Clinical and basic science data suggest a role for reduced γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in both MDD and primary insomnia (PI). Here, we have utilized single-voxel proton magnetic spectroscopy (1H-MRS) at 4 Tesla to examine GABA relative to total creatine (GABA/Cr) in the occipital cortex (OC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and thalamus in 20 non-medicated adults with PI (12 women) and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy sleeper comparison subjects. PI subjects had significantly lower GABA/Cr in the OC (p=0.0005) and ACC (p=0.03) compared with healthy sleepers. There was no significant difference in thalamic GABA/Cr between groups. After correction for multiple comparisons, GABA/Cr did not correlate significantly with insomnia severity measures among PI subjects. This study is the first to demonstrate regional reductions of GABA in PI in the OC and ACC. Reductions in GABA in similar brain regions in MDD using 1H-MRS suggest a common reduction in cortical GABA among PI and mood disorders.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.