title: Differential striatal dopamine responses following oral alcohol in individuals at varying risk for dependence.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The neurobiology of risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) remains poorly understood. Individual differences in vulnerability, though, have been indicated by subjective responses to alcohol ingestion and personality traits.
  
  
  METHODS
  To investigate the relationship between these features and striatal dopamine (DA) responses to alcohol, we studied 26 healthy young social drinkers (21.3 ± 3.0 years old; 10.7 ± 8.8 drinks/wk) at varying risk for alcoholism. Each participant received 2 positron emission tomography [(11) C]raclopride scans after administration of either placebo or oral alcohol (1 ml/kg body weight of 94% alcohol, 0.75 g/kg) in a randomized and counterbalanced design.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subjects with high-risk subjective responses to alcohol had more family members with AUDs, greater alcohol use problems, and, in response to the alcohol challenge, significant decreases in [(11) C]raclopride binding indicative of increased extracellular DA. In contrast, low-risk subjects exhibited increases in [(11) C]raclopride binding in response to alcohol. The results were similar when risk groups were based on personality traits, although statistically less robust.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Changes in striatal DA in response to alcohol ingestion may be a neurobiological marker of vulnerability to AUDs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada; Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Setiawan
authors.forename: Robert O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Pihl
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dagher
authors.forename: Hera
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schlagintweit
authors.forename: Kevin F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Casey
authors.forename: Chawki
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Benkelfat
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leyton
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000378:metabolism*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D004298:Dopamine
keywords: Addiction; Endophenotype; Personality; Reward; Vulnerability