title: Structural brain differences in alcohol-dependent individuals with and without comorbid substance dependence.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Over 50% of individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUD) also use other substances; brain structural abnormalities observed in alcohol dependent individuals may not be entirely related to alcohol consumption. This MRI study assessed differences in brain regional tissue volumes between short-term abstinent alcohol dependent individuals without (ALC) and with current substance use dependence (polysubstance users, PSU).
  
  
  METHODS
  Nineteen, one-month-abstinent PSU and 40 ALC as well as 27 light-drinkers (LD) were studied on a 1.5 T MR system. Whole brain T1-weighted images were segmented automatically into regional gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volumes. MANOVA assessed group differences of intracranial volume-normalized tissue volumes of the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes and regional subcortical GM volumes. The volumetric measures were correlated with neurocognitive measures to assess their functional relevance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Despite similar lifetime drinking and smoking histories, PSU had significantly larger normalized WM volumes than ALC in all lobes. PSU also had larger frontal and parietal WM volumes than LD, but smaller temporal GM volumes and smaller lenticular and thalamic nuclei than LD. ALC had smaller frontal, parietal, and temporal GM, thalamic GM and cerebellar volumes than LD. ALC had more sulcal CSF volumes than both PSU and LD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  One-month-abstinent ALC and PSU exhibited different patterns of gross brain structural abnormalities. The larger lobar WM volumes in PSU in the absence of widespread GM volume loss contrast with widespread GM atrophy in ALC. These structural differences may demand different treatment approaches to mitigate specific functionally relevant brain abnormalities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA; Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA; School of Applied Sciences and Statistics, Koforidua Polytechnic, Ghana. Electronic address: andymon2013@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Anderson
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mon
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA; Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Durazzo
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.affiliation: Nencki Institute for Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gazdzinski
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pennington
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA; Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Dieter J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Meyerhoff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D013695:Temperance; D013788:Thalamus
keywords: Alcohol use disorder; Brain structure; MRI; Neurocognition; Polysubstance use disorder; Substance use disorder