title: Socioeconomic status is associated with striatal dopamine D2/D3 receptors in healthy volunteers but not in cocaine abusers.
abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) studies in animals and humans have shown that social status is associated with striatal dopamine D2/D3 receptor (D2/D3R) availability. That is, higher social hierarchy and higher scores on questionnaires assessing social status correlated positively with striatal D2/D3R availability in animals and humans respectively. Furthermore, subordinate monkeys were vulnerable to cocaine self-administration, suggesting that alternations in social hierarchy can change D2/D3R availability and vulnerability to cocaine use. Here, we investigated whether socioeconomic status (SES) measured with the Hollingshead scale is associated with striatal D2D/3R availability using [(11)C]raclopride PET in 38 cocaine abusers and 42 healthy controls matched for age and education. Compared to controls, cocaine abusers showed lower D2/D3R availability in the caudate, putamen and ventral striatum (all p≤0.001). Despite matching groups for education, SES scores were lower in cocaine abusers than controls (p<0.001). In the control group only, SES scores significantly correlated with D2/D3R in caudate (r=0.35, p=0.024) and putamen (r=0.39, p=0.011) but not in ventral striatum (p=0.61); all corrected for age. The study confirms that SES is associated with striatal D2/D3R availability in healthy human volunteers. However, reductions in D2/D3R availability in cocaine abusers may be driven by factors other than SES such as chronic cocaine exposure.
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. Electronic address: corinde.wiers@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Corinde E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Wiers
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shokri-Kojori
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cabrera
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Dardo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tomasi
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Gene-Jack
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Nora D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Volkow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000378:metabolism*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D020891:Raclopride / Q000378:metabolism; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000378:metabolism; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D050637:Receptors, Dopamine D3 / Q000378:metabolism*; D012923:Social Class
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2; D050637:Receptors, Dopamine D3; D020891:Raclopride
keywords: Cocaine; Dopamine; PET; Socioeconomic status; Striatum
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