Creatine – Creatine Phosphate System in Healthy Persons and in Patients with Mental Disorders

Background: the normal brain functioning is provided by a brain system maintaining pools and balance of concentrations of the main high-energy compounds, such as ATP and creatine phosphate (CrP), with its main components — creatine (Cr), creatine phosphate (CrP) and creatine phosphokinase (or creatine kinase, CK), the last is catalyzing the reaction of high-energy phosphate residue transfer between ATP, Cr and CrP. The purpose of this review is to analyze the results of studies on the elements of the Cr — CrP system: Cr, CrP and CK in healthy persons and in patients with mental and neurodegenerative disorders and to consider the possibilities of using Cr — CrP-targeted therapy for mental and neurodegenerative disorders. Methods: using combinations of keywords “creatine”, “creatine phosphate”, “creatine kinase”, “schizophrenia”, “bipolar affective disorder”, “Alzheimer’s disease” and “pharmacotherapy”, a search was conducted for sources in the Medline/PubMed, Scopus and RSCI databases. Conclusion: a critical examination of the original articles, both clinical and experimental, including studies performed on animal models, provides a good reason to believe that the involvement of the Cr — CrP system in the pathogenesis of mental illnesses has been confirmed and opens up further prospectives for Cr — CrP-oriented therapy of mental and neurodegenerative disorders, however, further clinical studies of the Cr — CrP system in psychiatry are necessary.