BACKGROUND: The neurobiology of risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) remains poorly understood. Individual differences in vulnerability, though, have been indicated by subjective responses to alcohol ingestion and personality traits. METHODS: To investigate the relationship between these features and striatal dopamine (DA) responses to alcohol, we studied 26 healthy young social drinkers (21.3 ± 3.0 years old; 10.7 ± 8.8 drinks/wk) at varying risk for alcoholism. Each participant received 2 positron emission tomography [(11) C]raclopride scans after administration of either placebo or oral alcohol (1 ml/kg body weight of 94% alcohol, 0.75 g/kg) in a randomized and counterbalanced design. RESULTS: Subjects with high-risk subjective responses to alcohol had more family members with AUDs, greater alcohol use problems, and, in response to the alcohol challenge, significant decreases in [(11) C]raclopride binding indicative of increased extracellular DA. In contrast, low-risk subjects exhibited increases in [(11) C]raclopride binding in response to alcohol. The results were similar when risk groups were based on personality traits, although statistically less robust. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in striatal DA in response to alcohol ingestion may be a neurobiological marker of vulnerability to AUDs.
RCT Entities:
BACKGROUND: The neurobiology of risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) remains poorly understood. Individual differences in vulnerability, though, have been indicated by subjective responses to alcohol ingestion and personality traits. METHODS: To investigate the relationship between these features and striatal dopamine (DA) responses to alcohol, we studied 26 healthy young social drinkers (21.3 ± 3.0 years old; 10.7 ± 8.8 drinks/wk) at varying risk for alcoholism. Each participant received 2 positron emission tomography [(11) C]raclopride scans after administration of either placebo or oral alcohol (1 ml/kg body weight of 94% alcohol, 0.75 g/kg) in a randomized and counterbalanced design. RESULTS: Subjects with high-risk subjective responses to alcohol had more family members with AUDs, greater alcohol use problems, and, in response to the alcohol challenge, significant decreases in [(11) C]raclopride binding indicative of increased extracellular DA. In contrast, low-risk subjects exhibited increases in [(11) C]raclopride binding in response to alcohol. The results were similar when risk groups were based on personality traits, although statistically less robust. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in striatal DA in response to alcohol ingestion may be a neurobiological marker of vulnerability to AUDs.
Authors: Constantine J Trela; Alexander W Hayes; Bruce D Bartholow; Kenneth J Sher; Andrew C Heath; Thomas M Piasecki Journal: Exp Clin Psychopharmacol Date: 2018-07-09 Impact factor: 3.157