Functional connectivity abnormalities underlying mood disturbances in male abstinent methamphetamine abusers

Abstract

Anxiety and depression are the most common withdrawal symptoms of methamphetamine (METH) abuse, which further exacerbate relapse of METH abuse. To date, no effective pharmacotherapy exists for METH abuse and its withdrawal symptoms.Therefore, understanding the neuromechanism underlying METH abuse and its withdrawal symptoms is essential for developing clinical strategies and improving patient care. The aims of this study were to investigate brain network abnormalities in METH abusers (MAs) and their associations with affective symptoms. Forty-eight male abstinent MAs and 48 age-gender matched healthy controls were recruited and underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The severity of patient anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured by Hamilton anxiety and depression rating scales, which decreased across the duration of abstinence. Independent component analysis was used to investigate the brain network functional connectivity (FC) properties. Compared with healthy controls, MAs demonstrated hypo-intra-network FC in the cerebellar network and hyper-intra-network FC in the posterior salience network. A whole-brain regression analysis revealed that FC strength of clusters located in the right rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) within the ventromedial network (VMN) was associated with affective symptoms in the patients. Importantly, the intra-network FC strength of the rACC in VMN mediated the association between abstinence duration and the severity level of affective symptoms. Our results demonstrate alterations in brain functional networks underlying Jing Li, Keith Kendrick, and Qiyong Gong contributed equally to the study.

Characteristics of depression, anxiety, impulsivity, and aggression among various types of drug users and factors for developing severe depression: a cross-sectional study

“…A study using positron emission tomography has shown that the use of methamphetamine may lead to a sustained decrease in the density of brain dopamine transporters, which may relate to the long persisting anhedonia and other depressive symptoms after the last use [ 42 ]. Moreover, other neuroimaging studies have confirmed brain function changes in the reward system, especially in the striatum and limbic and paralimbic regions, which contribute to depressive symptoms [ 43 , 44 ]. In addition to types of drug use, anxiety evaluated by the SAS was also a risk factor for developing severe depression in all the participants and in the three groups.…”

Regional Homogeneity Abnormalities and Its Correlation With Impulsivity in Male Abstinent Methamphetamine Dependent Individuals

“…According to the 2019 China Drug Situation Report released in 2020, MA users in China accounted for 55.2 percent of its 2.148 million registered drug users, making it the largest drug user in the country by far, ( China National Narcotic Control Commission, 2020 ). In addition to the high prevalence of MA use, the high recurrence rates of MA dependent individuals (MADs) exacerbate the problem, creating a huge public health burden worldwide ( Jiang et al, 2021 ). Chronic use of MA has been associated with a variety of physical and mental health problems (e.g., cardiovascular disease, depression) ( Schwarzbach et al, 2020 ; Jiang et al, 2021 ), daily dysfunction (e.g., impulsivity) ( Moallem et al, 2018 ; Wang et al, 2020 ) and neurocognitive dysfunction ( Basterfield et al, 2019 ; Mizoguchi and Yamada, 2019 ), contributing to a considerable global disease burden.…”

“…In addition to the high prevalence of MA use, the high recurrence rates of MA dependent individuals (MADs) exacerbate the problem, creating a huge public health burden worldwide ( Jiang et al, 2021 ). Chronic use of MA has been associated with a variety of physical and mental health problems (e.g., cardiovascular disease, depression) ( Schwarzbach et al, 2020 ; Jiang et al, 2021 ), daily dysfunction (e.g., impulsivity) ( Moallem et al, 2018 ; Wang et al, 2020 ) and neurocognitive dysfunction ( Basterfield et al, 2019 ; Mizoguchi and Yamada, 2019 ), contributing to a considerable global disease burden. Although increasing studies have been conducted on the treating MA use disorders, such as pharmacotherapy ( Chan et al, 2019 ), psychotherapy ( Harada et al, 2018 ), and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) ( AshaRani et al, 2020 ), the effectiveness in reducing MA recurrence remains unsatisfactory.…”

Identification of Methamphetamine Abstainers by Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

“…There are few studies on the abnormal functional connection patterns of MA abstainers in the whole brain. One work on this topic showed that compared with healthy controls, MAs showed low network function in the cerebellum and high intra-network function in the post-significant network, proving that there is indeed a change in the brain function network( Jiang et al, 2021 ).…”