Damage in the dorsal striatum alleviates addictive behavior.
The ventral striatum has been assigned a major role in addictive behavior. In addition, clinical lesion studies have described involvement of the insula and globus pallidus. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of alleviation of alcohol and nicotine addiction after a cerebrovascular incident in the dorsal striatum. The patient was still abstinent from alcohol and nicotine at follow-up. This observation suggests that the dorsal striatum may play a critical role in addiction to alcohol and nicotine.
Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. j.muskens@psy.umcn.nl
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D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000503:physiopathology; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011699:Putamen / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*