ArticleJournal of affective disorders2019
Changes in brain Glx in depressed bipolar patients treated with lamotrigine: A proton MRS study.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ketamine and other glutamate receptor modulators for depression in adults with bipolar disorder.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Acute neural effects of the mood stabiliser lamotrigine on emotional processing in healthy volunteers: a randomised control trial.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- A multi-omics analysis of gut bacteriome, virome, and serum metabolome in bipolar depression.Npj mental health research · 2026Article
- Evaluation of GABAergic and Glutamatergic Levels in the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex of Patients With Bipolar Disorder: A Cross-SectionalNeuropsychopharmacology reports · 2026Article
- Clinical Insights Into the Mechanistic Crossroads of Lamotrigine and Therapeutic Ketosis in Bipolar Depression.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- Functional Connectivity of the Cerebellar Vermis in Bipolar Disorder and Associations with Mood.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- The potential ofPsychopharmacology · 2021Review
- Antidepressive Mechanisms of Probiotics and Their Therapeutic Potential.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLamotrigine is a useful treatment in bipolar depression but requires several weeks of dose titration before its clinical effects can be assessed. Animal experimental studies suggest that lamotrigine lowers glutamate release. The aim of the current study was to assess the effect of lamotrigine on brain glutamate in depressed bipolar patients and to determine whether baseline glutamate could be used to predict clinical response.
methodsWe studied 21 bipolar patients who received lamotrigine treatment for a current episode of depression. Before starting lamotrigine and after 10-12 weeks treatment, patients underwent proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) scanning at 3 Tesla where levels of glutamate (measured as Glx) were determined in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).
resultsOverall, lamotrigine treatment had no significant effect on Glx levels in ACC. However, in patients who responded clinically to lamotrigine treatment Glx concentrations were significantly increased. Baseline levels of Glx did not predict response to lamotrigine. LIMITATIONS: The main limitation of the study was the modest sample size. Most patients were medicated which may have modified the effect of lamotrigine on glutamate activity. MRS at 3T cannot give a reliable estimate of glutamate separate from its main metabolite, glutamine, and thus changes in Glx may not give a precise estimate of effects of lamotrigine on glutamate itself.
conclusionLamotrigine does not appear to have a direct effect on glutamate levels in ACC in bipolar patients. However, therapeutic improvement during lamotrigine was associated with increased Glx, suggesting that alterations in glutamatergic activity might be related to recovery from bipolar depression.
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