title: Recovery of cortical functioning in abstinent alcohol-dependent patients: prefrontal brain oxygenation during verbal fluency at different phases during withdrawal.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Neurotoxic effects of alcohol consumption are well-known. There is plenty of literature on frontal lobe impairment on the behavioural and structural brain imaging level. However, only few functional imaging studies investigated altered neural patterns and even less abstinence-related neural recovery.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a cross-sectional design three patient groups (acute withdrawal, detoxified, abstinent) and healthy controls (each n = 20) performed a phonological and semantic verbal fluency task (VFT) while brain activity was measured with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  First, for the phonological condition withdrawal patients and detoxified patients showed less fluency-related frontal lobe activation compared to controls despite equal performance. Second, significant linear trend effects from withdrawal patients over detoxified and abstinent patients up to healthy controls indicated more normal activation patterns in the abstinent group that did not differ significantly from the controls. In the detoxified group brain activation increased with time since detoxification.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results are compatible with an increase in frontal brain activity from alcohol dependence over abstinence up to normal functioning. However, as cross-sectional designs do not allow to assess causal relations, results have to be considered preliminary and longitudinal studies are needed to further elucidate recovery processes in alcohol dependence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Wuerzburg, Germany. Dresler_T@klinik.uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dresler
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schecklmann
authors.forename: Lena H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pohla
authors.forename: Bodo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Warrings
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Polak
authors.forename: Andreas J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Fallgatter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059906:Neuroimaging; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013695:Temperance; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*