Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T16:39:37.505Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

32 - Neuroimaging of substance abuse: commentary

from Section V - Substance Abuse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2011

Adolf Pfefferbaum
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Program SRI International Menlo Park, CA, USA and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford, CA, USA
Martha E. Shenton
Affiliation:
VA Boston Healthcare System and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Bruce I. Turetsky
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

Neuroimaging offers a unique window into brain structure and physiology not otherwise available in living persons. Alcohol and other substances of abuse change the brain, and these changes themselves may contribute to maintenance of the disorders. Thus, it is often hard to know whether the brain alterations observed in patients with alcohol and substance abuse are cause or effect. Their clinical trajectories are classically ones of exacerbations and remissions, with some unfortunate individuals ending in death. With animal models we can manipulate many factors out of experimental control in humans; with humans we are limited to naturalistic observations following the course of the disorder. Yet, with longitudinal observations through remissions and exacerbations, some of the cause and effect mystery can be resolved.

The three preceding chapters set forth reviews of major neuroimaging approaches to the problem – structural integrity with computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), physiological response to cognitive and motor challenge with functional MRI (fMRI), metabolic and neurotransmitter function with positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photo emission computed tomography (SPECT), and metabolite assays with MR spectroscopy. Each of the approaches has strengths and limitations and they should all be considered complementary to each other. Done well, each requires substantial technical sophistication.

Among the insights we can potentially gain from in-vivo human neuroimaging regarding alcohol and substance abuse disorders are characterization of neuropathology; factors modulating or contributing to the onset, course, and maintenance of misuse; the scope and limits of recovery; and possible benefits of selective substance use (see Box 32.1).

Type
Chapter
Information
Understanding Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Insights from Neuroimaging
, pp. 463 - 464
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×