OBJECTIVE: Environmental drug-related cues have been implicated as a cause of illicit heroin use during methadone maintenance treatment of heroin dependence. The authors sought to identify the functional neuroanatomy of the brain response to visual heroin-related stimuli in methadone maintenance patients. METHOD: Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to compare brain responses to heroin-related stimuli and matched neutral stimuli in 25 patients in methadone maintenance treatment. Patients were studied before and after administration of their regular daily methadone dose. RESULTS: The heightened responses to heroin-related stimuli in the insula, amygdala, and hippocampal complex, but not the orbitofrontal and ventral anterior cingulate cortices, were acutely reduced after administration of the daily methadone dose. CONCLUSIONS: The medial prefrontal cortex and the extended limbic system in methadone maintenance patients with a history of heroin dependence remains responsive to salient drug cues, which suggests a continued vulnerability to relapse. Vulnerability may be highest at the end of the 24-hour interdose interval.
OBJECTIVE: Environmental drug-related cues have been implicated as a cause of illicit heroin use during methadone maintenance treatment of heroin dependence. The authors sought to identify the functional neuroanatomy of the brain response to visual heroin-related stimuli in methadone maintenance patients. METHOD: Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to compare brain responses to heroin-related stimuli and matched neutral stimuli in 25 patients in methadone maintenance treatment. Patients were studied before and after administration of their regular daily methadone dose. RESULTS: The heightened responses to heroin-related stimuli in the insula, amygdala, and hippocampal complex, but not the orbitofrontal and ventral anterior cingulate cortices, were acutely reduced after administration of the daily methadone dose. CONCLUSIONS: The medial prefrontal cortex and the extended limbic system in methadone maintenance patients with a history of heroin dependence remains responsive to salient drug cues, which suggests a continued vulnerability to relapse. Vulnerability may be highest at the end of the 24-hour interdose interval.
Authors: Sarah W Yip; Elise E DeVito; Hedy Kober; Patrick D Worhunsky; Kathleen M Carroll; Marc N Potenza Journal: Drug Alcohol Depend Date: 2016-07-16 Impact factor: 4.492
Authors: Zhenhao Shi; An-Li Wang; Kanchana Jagannathan; Victoria P Fairchild; Charles P O'Brien; Anna Rose Childress; Daniel D Langleben Journal: J Psychiatry Neurosci Date: 2018-07 Impact factor: 6.186
Authors: Ahmed A Moustafa; Alejandro N Morris; Jean Louis Nandrino; Błażej Misiak; Monika Szewczuk-Bogusławska; Dorota Frydecka; Mohamad El Haj Journal: Exp Brain Res Date: 2018-08-11 Impact factor: 1.972