Effects of alcoholism and continued abstinence on brain volumes in both genders.

Alcohol abuse has detrimental effects on cerebral function, metabolism, and volume. Some of these effects were found to be at least partially reversible with continued abstinence. Furthermore, it has been reported that there are different effects of alcohol on brain volumes for women compared with men, but the results concerning the interaction between alcohol dependence and gender are inconsistent. With this study, we aimed to further investigate this question by examining the global gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) changes as well as regional and local GM changes detected by voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in male and female alcoholic patients a few weeks after detoxification and the corresponding changes in a subgroup of these patients 3 months later. A total of 50 patients, consecutively admitted for alcohol withdrawal treatment, participated in this study and were followed up for at least 3 months into abstinence. High-resolution structural images were processed with SPM8 using an optimized VBM protocol. Global cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume was increased and WM and GM volume decreased equally in male and female patients. A gender by diagnosis interaction was found neither for global nor for regional volumes or VBM data. VBM whole brain analysis yielded a significant GM volume loss in the patient group in the cingulate gyrus and the insula in both hemispheres. Region of interest analysis for the initial and 3 months follow-up scans yielded significant gains in regional volumes, particularly the cingulate gyrus and the insula in the group of abstinent patients, whereas no volume change at all is found in the patients who had relapsed. Our study confirms widespread cerebral volume loss in recently detoxified alcoholics. The effects of alcohol dependence seem to have equally adverse effects on brain morphometry in males and females.

Demirakca T ，Ende G ，Kämmerer N ，Welzel-Marquez H ，Hermann D ，Heinz A ，Mann K ... -  《-》

Effects of abstinence on the brain: quantitative magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging in chronic alcohol abuse.

O'Neill J ，Cardenas VA ，Meyerhoff DJ 《-》

Rapid partial regeneration of brain volume during the first 14 days of abstinence from alcohol.

Chronic alcohol abuse leads to severe damage of the nervous system, including a change in cerebral metabolism and brain morphology. Global volume reductions of gray matter (GM) and white matter and an increase in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) occur after severe alcohol consumption, but abstinent alcoholics also demonstrate a brain volume recovery. The aim of this study was to investigate whether volumetric amelioration takes place already within the first 2 weeks of abstinence. All 49 alcohol-dependent patients included in this study were scanned within the first 24 hours of detoxification and after 2 weeks of supervised abstinence. Amelioration of volumetric brain loss in alcohol-dependent patients has been investigated, and brain volumes have been compared with 55 healthy control subjects using whole-brain segmentation and a voxel-based morphometric approach. On the first day of abstinence, the global CSF volume was larger and the GM volume was smaller in alcohol-dependent patients compared with healthy controls. The largest clusters with significant volumetric differences were in the cingulate gyrus, precentral and middle frontal gyrus, cerebellum, and insula. Already after 2 weeks of abstinence, a significant albeit partial recovery of GM volume occurred in several brain regions. Our results show that recovery of GM volume in alcohol-dependent patients starts within a few days after detoxification but varies between brain regions. This suggests that the general ability to recover and the rate as well as onset of the recovery diverges for different brain regions.

van Eijk J ，Demirakca T ，Frischknecht U ，Hermann D ，Mann K ，Ende G ... -  《-》

Voxel-wise assessment of progression of regional brain atrophy in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Battaglini M ，Giorgio A ，Stromillo ML ，Bartolozzi ML ，Guidi L ，Federico A ，De Stefano N ... -  《-》

Regional change in brain morphometry in schizophrenia associated with antipsychotic treatment.

McClure RK ，Phillips I ，Jazayerli R ，Barnett A ，Coppola R ，Weinberger DR ... -  《PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH》