Are There Neural Overlaps of Reactivity to Illegal Drugs, Tobacco, and Alcohol Cues? With Evidence From ALE and CMA

Abstract

Abuses of most illegal drugs, including methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and polydrug, are usually in conjunction with alcohol and tobacco. There are similarities and associations between the behavior, gene, and neurophysiology of such abusers, but the neural overlaps of their cue-reactivity and the correlation of neural overlap with drug craving still needs to be further explored. In this study, an Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) was performed on brain activation under legal (tobacco, alcohol) and illegal drug cues, for identifying the similarities in brain functions between different craving states. A Comprehensive meta-analysis (CMA) on the correlation coefficient between brain activation and craving scores in the selected literatures with subjective craving reports explained the degree of the craving via brain imaging results. In ALE, co-activation areas of the three cue-reactivity (posterior cingulate, caudate, and thalamus) suggest that the three cue-reactivity may all arouse drug-use identity which is a predictor of relapse and generation of conditioned reflexes under reward memory, thus leading to illegal drug relapses. In CMA, the brain activation was significantly correlated with subjective craving, with a correlation coefficient of 0.222. The neural overlap of tobacco, alcohol and most of the prevalent illegal drug cues not only further helps us understand the neural mechanism of substance co-abuse and relapse, but also provides implications to detoxification. Furthermore, the correlation between brain activation and craving is low, suggesting the accuracy of craving-based quantitative evaluation by neuroimaging remains unclear.

Mesocorticolimbic system reactivity to alcohol use-related visual cues as a function of alcohol sensitivity phenotype: A pilot fMRI study

“…A third limitation is that reactivity to alcohol/drug images was defined in relation to reactivity to affectively neutral complex images (i. e., ACR=Alc-CC). Although such contrasts are widely used in the alcohol/drug cue fMRI literature [ 44 , 50 , 51 , 72 , 95 ], it is important to note that alternative contrasts (e.g., alcohol/drug images vs. non-alcohol/drug reward images) may be better suited for delineating neural mechanisms or biomarkers of addiction [ 96 , 97 ]. Here, these alternative contrasts (e.g., Alc-FD) did not return voxel clusters that survived family-wise error (FWE) correction to p <.05.…”

Sexualized drug use among gay men and other men who have sex with men in Latin America: A description of the phenomenon based on the results of LAMIS-2018

“…This study revealed high percentage of alcohol consumption and dependence (90.1% and 21.2%, respectively), which exceeded the levels reported by the WHO for the general population of the American region. Considering that the abuse of most illegal drugs, including methamphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and polydrugs, generally occur in conjunction with alcohol, intervention strategies should not exclude legal drugs in their communication aspects, especially considering the risks associated with polydrug use and the interaction between PS [ 43 ]. Cannabis was predominantly used by the surveyed population.…”

“…Considering that the abuse of most illegal drugs, including methamphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and polydrugs, generally occur in conjunction with alcohol, intervention strategies should not exclude legal drugs in their communication aspects, especially considering the risks associated with polydrug use and the interaction between PS [43]. Cannabis was…”