The authors measured gray matter volumes in healthy volunteers and in a sample of treatment-engaged, alcohol-dependent patients after 1 month of abstinence and assessed whether smaller frontal gray matter volume was predictive of subsequent alcohol relapse outcomes.
Forty-five abstinent alcohol-dependent patients in treatment and 50 healthy comparison subjects were scanned once using high-resolution (T1-weighted) structural MRI, and voxel-based morphometry was used to assess regional brain volume differences between the groups.
A prospective study design was used to assess alcohol relapse in the alcohol-dependent group for 90 days after discharge from 6 weeks of inpatient treatment.
Significantly smaller gray matter volume in alcohol-dependent patients relative to comparison subjects was seen in three regions: the medial frontal cortex, the right lateral prefrontal cortex, and a posterior region surrounding the parietal-occipital sulcus.
Smaller medial frontal and parietal-occipital gray matter volumes were each predictive of shorter time to any alcohol use and to heavy drinking relapse.
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