Smoking-induced change in intrasynaptic dopamine concentration: Effect of treatment for Tobacco Dependence

• Published in: Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging Vol. 183; no. 3; pp. 218 - 224
• Main Authors: Brody, Arthur L., London, Edythe D., Olmstead, Richard E., Allen-Martinez, Zoe, Shulenberger, Stephanie, Costello, Matthew R., Abrams, Anna L., Scheibal, David, Farahi, Judah, Shoptaw, Steven, Mandelkern, Mark A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier Ireland Ltd 30.09.2010
• Subjects: 11C-raclopride; Adult; Aged; Analysis of Variance; Bupropion - therapeutic use; Cigarette craving; Dopamine; Dopamine - metabolism; Dopamine Antagonists - pharmacokinetics; Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Double-Blind Method; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Middle Aged; Positron emission tomography; Positron-Emission Tomography - methods; Psychiatry; Raclopride - pharmacokinetics; Radiology; Smoking - metabolism; Smoking - psychology; Statistics as Topic; Synapses - diagnostic imaging; Synapses - metabolism; Tobacco Dependence; Tobacco Use Disorder - diagnostic imaging; Tobacco Use Disorder - drug therapy; Ventral striatum; Young Adult; 11C-raclopride; Ventral striatum; Dopamine; Positron emission tomography; Cigarette craving; Tobacco Dependence
• ISSN: 0925-4927; 1872-7506
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2009.06.004

The aim of this study was to determine whether standard treatments for Tobacco Dependence affect smoking-induced changes in intrasynaptic dopamine (DA) concentration. Forty-three otherwise healthy adult cigarette smokers (10 to 40 cigarettes per day) were treated with either practical group counseling (PGC) psychotherapy ( n = 14), bupropion HCl ( n = 14), or matching pill placebo ( n = 15) (random assignment) for 8 weeks. Before and after treatment, each subject underwent a bolus-plus-continuous-infusion 11C-raclopride positron emission tomography (PET) scanning session, during which he or she smoked a regular cigarette. The PET scanning outcome measure of interest was percent change in smoking-induced 11C-raclopride binding potential (BP ND) in the ventral caudate/nucleus accumbens (VCD/NAc), as an indirect measure of DA release. Although the entire study sample had a smaller mean smoking-induced reduction in VCD/NAc BP ND after treatment (compared to before treatment), this change was highly correlated with smaller total cigarette puff volumes (and not other treatment variables). These data indicate that smoking-induced DA release is dose-dependent, and is not significantly affected by reductions in daily smoking levels or treatment type.