Imaging Brain Mu-Opioid Receptors in Abstinent Cocaine Users: Time Course and Relation to Cocaine Craving

• Published in: Biological psychiatry (1969) Vol. 57; no. 12; pp. 1573 - 1582
• Main Authors: Gorelick, David A., Kim, Yu Kyeong, Bencherif, Badreddine, Boyd, Susan J., Nelson, Richard, Copersino, Marc, Endres, Christopher J., Dannals, Robert F., Frost, J. James
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 15.06.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: abstinence; Addictive behaviors; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Analgesics, Opioid - pharmacokinetics; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - drug effects; Brain - metabolism; Brain - pathology; Brain Mapping; Carbon Isotopes - pharmacokinetics; carfentanil; Cocaine; Cocaine-Related Disorders - metabolism; Cocaine-Related Disorders - pathology; craving; Drug addiction; Female; Fentanyl - analogs & derivatives; Fentanyl - pharmacokinetics; Functional Laterality; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Linear Models; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; mu-opioid receptor; PET scan; Positron-Emission Tomography - methods; Protein Binding; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Receptors, Opioid, mu - metabolism; Retrospective Studies; Time Factors; mu-opioid receptor; carfentanil; abstinence; craving; Cocaine; PET scan; Radionuclide study; Human; Drug addiction; Cerebral cortex; CNS stimulant; Psychotropic; Craving; Central nervous system; μ Opioid receptor; Abstinence; Encephalon; Carfentanil; Treatment; Drug of abuse; Time analysis; Emission tomography
• ISSN: 0006-3223; 1873-2402
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.02.026

Cocaine treatment upregulates brain mu-opioid receptors (mOR) in animals. Human data regarding this phenomenon are limited. We previously used positron emission tomography (PET) with [ 11C]-carfentanil to show increased mOR binding in brain regions of 10 cocaine-dependent men after 1 and 28 days of...