title: Brain Cortical Thickness Differences in Adolescent Females with Substance Use Disorders.
abstract: METHODS
  We recruited right-handed female patients, 14-19 years of age, from a university-based treatment program for youths with substance use disorders and community controls similar for age, race and zip code of residence. We obtained 43 T1-weighted structural brain images (22 patients and 21 controls) to examine group differences in cortical thickness across the entire brain as well as six a priori regions-of-interest: 1) medial orbitofrontal cortex; 2) rostral anterior cingulate cortex; and 3) middle frontal cortex, in each hemisphere. Age and IQ were entered as nuisance factors for all analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A priori region-of-interest analyses yielded no significant differences. However, whole-brain group comparisons revealed that the left pregenual rostral anterior cingulate cortex extending into the left medial orbitofrontal region (355.84 mm2 in size), a subset of two of our a priori regions-of-interest, was significantly thinner in patients compared to controls (vertex-level threshold p = 0.005 and cluster-level family wise error corrected threshold p = 0.05). The whole-brain group differences did not survive after adjusting for depression or externalizing scores. Whole-brain within-patient analyses demonstrated a positive association between cortical thickness in the left precuneus and behavioral disinhibition scores (458.23 mm2 in size).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adolescent females with substance use disorders have significant differences in brain cortical thickness in regions engaged by the default mode network and that have been associated with problems of emotional dysregulation, inhibition, and behavioral control in past studies.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Peter K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Boulos
authors.affiliation: Division of Substance Dependence, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Manish S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Dalwani
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jody
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tanabe
authors.affiliation: Division of Substance Dependence, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Susan K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Mikulich-Gilbertson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Marie T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Banich
authors.affiliation: Division of Substance Dependence, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Crowley
authors.affiliation: Division of Substance Dependence, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Joseph T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Sakai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult