title: PET imaging for addiction medicine: From neural mechanisms to clinical considerations.
abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) has been shown to be an effective imaging technique to study neurometabolic and neurochemical processes involved in addiction. That is, PET has been used to research neurobiological differences in substance abusers versus healthy controls and the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of abused drugs. Over the past years, the research scope has shifted to investigating neurobiological effects of abstinence and treatment, and their predictive power for relapse and other clinical outcomes. This chapter provides an overview of PET methodology, recent human PET studies on drug addiction and their implications for clinical treatment.
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: 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: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Skarda
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
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
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy
keywords: Addiction; Dopamine; Drug dependence; Neuroimaging; Neurotransmission; PET