Alcohol Dependence Is Associated with Blunted Dopamine Transmission in the Ventral Striatum

• Published in: Biological psychiatry (1969) Vol. 58; no. 10; pp. 779 - 786
• Main Authors: Martinez, Diana, Gil, Roberto, Slifstein, Mark, Hwang, Dah-Ren, Huang, Yiyun, Perez, Audrey, Kegeles, Lawrence, Talbot, Peter, Evans, Suzette, Krystal, John, Laruelle, Marc, Abi-Dargham, Anissa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 15.11.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alcohol dependence; Alcoholism; Alcoholism - diagnosis; Alcoholism - diagnostic imaging; Alcoholism - metabolism; Alcoholism - physiopathology; amphetamine; Basal Ganglia - diagnostic imaging; Basal Ganglia - metabolism; Basal Ganglia - physiopathology; Biological and medical sciences; Carbon Radioisotopes; Dextroamphetamine - pharmacology; dopamine; Dopamine - metabolism; Dopamine - physiology; Female; Humans; Limbic System - drug effects; Limbic System - metabolism; Limbic System - physiopathology; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; mesolimbic; Middle Aged; Neural Inhibition - drug effects; Neural Inhibition - physiology; Neuropharmacology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; positron emission tomography (PET); Positron-Emission Tomography; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychopharmacology; Raclopride; Receptors, Dopamine D2 - drug effects; Receptors, Dopamine D2 - metabolism; Synaptic Transmission - drug effects; Synaptic Transmission - physiology; ventral striatum; amphetamine; Alcohol dependence; mesolimbic; positron emission tomography (PET); dopamine; ventral striatum; Amphetamine derivatives; Radionuclide study; Human; Dopamine; CNS stimulant; Psychotropic; Alcoholism; Central nervous system; Basal ganglion; Corpus striatum; Catecholamine; Encephalon; Chemotherapy; Treatment; Neurotransmitter; Amfetamine; Emission tomography
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.04.044
• ISSN: 0006-3223

A decrease in dopamine type 2 receptors (D 2 ) and mesolimbic dopamine transmission predisposes animals to consume alcohol. This study measured D 2 receptors and dopamine transmission in human alcohol-dependent (AD) subjects using positron emission tomography (PET) and [ 11C]raclopride. Fifteen AD and 15 healthy control (HC) subjects were scanned before and after a psychostimulant challenge (amphetamine .3 mg/kg intravenous). The outcome measures for baseline D 2 receptor availability were binding potential (BP) and the equilibrium partition coefficient (V 3 ″). Amphetamine-induced [ 11C]raclopride displacement was measured as the difference in V 3 ″ between the two scans. [ 11C]raclopride BP was significantly reduced by 16.6% in the limbic striatum, 19.2% in the associative striatum, and 21.3% in the sensorimotor striatum in AD subjects compared with HC. The alcohol-dependent subjects showed a blunting of amphetamine-induced dopamine release in the limbic striatum: [ 11C]raclopride displacement was −5.2% ± 3.6% in AD subjects compared with −13.0% ± 8.8% in HC. However, no significant difference in [ 11C]raclopride displacement was seen in the associative (−4.6% ± 5.8% in AD subjects vs. −6.7 ± 5.4% in HC) and sensorimotor (−12.3% ± 7.3% in AD subjects vs. −13.7 ± 7.5% in HC) subdivisions of the striatum between the two groups. Alcohol dependence was associated with a decrease in D 2 receptors in each striatal subdivision, whereas amphetamine-induced dopamine release was reduced in the limbic striatum only.