Cerebral bioenergetic differences measured by phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy between bipolar disorder and healthy subjects living in two different regions suggesting possible effects of altitude.

The study showed that there were cerebral bioenergetic differences in both BD and HC veteran participants at two different sites, which may be partly explained by altitude difference. Future studies are needed to replicate these results in order to elucidate the dysfunctional mitochondrial changes that occur in response to hypobaric hypoxia.