title: PET imaging in clinical drug abuse research.
abstract: Over the last two decades, SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) and especially PET (positron emission tomography) have proven increasingly effective imaging modalities in the study of human psychopharmacology. Abusing populations can be studied at multiple times after abstinence begins, to give information about neurochemical and physiological adaptations of the brain during recovery from addiction. Individual human subjects can be studied using multiple positron labeled radiotracers, so as to probe more than one facet of brain function. PET and SPECT have been used to help our understanding of many aspects of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of abused drugs, and have made valuable contributions in terms of drug mechanisms, drug interactions (e.g. cocaine and alcohol) and drug toxicities. They have also been employed to study the acute effects of drugs on populations of active drug abusers and of normal controls, and to evaluate the neurochemical consequences of candidate therapies for drug abuse. A particularly productive strategy has been the use of PET in conjunction with neuropsychological testing of subjects, to allow correlation of imaging data with uniquely human aspects of the effects of drugs, such as euphoria and craving.
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Neuroimaging, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA. gatley@neu.edu
authors.forename: S John
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Gatley
authors.forename: Nora D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Volkow
authors.forename: Gene-Jack
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Joanna S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Fowler
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Logan
authors.forename: Yu-Shin
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Madina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gerasimov
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D009021:Morphine Dependence / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D009538:Nicotine / Q000378:metabolism; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D009538:Nicotine