MR spectroscopy (MRS) has been used to detect metabolic changes related to AUD, including changes in GABA and N-acetylaspartate, a putative marker of neuronal function, though few MRS papers have studied SG differences in alterations in brain metabolism in AUD. To our knowledge, only one such study has been conducted in the last ten years. In that study, Yeo et al. (2013) found no SG differences in brain metabolite concentrations in individuals with chronic, heavy alcohol use vs. healthy controls (Yeo et al., 2013). This is in contrast to previous findings of lower N-acetylaspartate levels, indicative of neuronal loss, in frontal gray matter in recently detoxified alcohol-dependent women with AUD compared to healthy women; an effect not significant between recently detoxified men with AUD and healthy men (Schweinsburg et al., 2003). Discrepant findings may be related to sample size differences between studies or higher N-acetylaspartate levels found in the healthy women compared to healthy men in the latter study (Schweinsburg et al., 2003). Nonetheless, it is possible that women with AUD may be more vulnerable to gray matter injury compared to their male counterparts (Schweinsburg et al., 2003). These results should be replicated in future studies.
