Accelerated Aging of the Amygdala in Alcohol Use Disorders: Relevance to the Dark Side of Addiction.

Journal: Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
PMID: 33629726

Abstract

Here we assessed changes in subcortical volumes in alcohol use disorder (AUD). A simple morphometry-based classifier (MC) was developed to identify subcortical volumes that distinguished 32 healthy controls (HCs) from 33 AUD patients, who were scanned twice, during early and later withdrawal, to assess the effect of abstinence on MC-features (Discovery cohort). We validated the novel classifier in an independent Validation cohort (19 AUD patients and 20 HCs). MC-accuracy reached 80% (Discovery) and 72% (Validation). MC features included the hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum, putamen, corpus callosum, and brain stem, which were smaller and showed stronger age-related decreases in AUD than HCs, and the ventricles and cerebrospinal fluid, which were larger in AUD and older participants. The volume of the amygdala showed a positive association with anxiety and negative urgency in AUD. Repeated imaging during the third week of detoxification revealed slightly larger subcortical volumes in AUD patients, consistent with partial recovery during abstinence. The steeper age-associated volumetric reductions in stress- and reward-related subcortical regions in AUD are consistent with accelerated aging, whereas the amygdalar associations with negative urgency and anxiety in AUD patients support its involvement in the "dark side of addiction".

Authors

  • Dardo Tomasi
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Corinde E Wiers
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Peter Manza
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Ehsan Shokri-Kojori
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Yonga Michele-Vera
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Rui Zhang
    Department of Cardiology, Zhongda Hospital, Medical School of Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
  • Danielle Kroll
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Dana Feldman
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Katherine McPherson
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Catherine Biesecker
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Melanie Schwandt
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Nancy Diazgranados
    Office of Clinical Director, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20814, MSC 1108, United States.
  • George F Koob
    National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD 21224, USA.
  • Gene-Jack Wang
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
  • Nora D Volkow
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

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