Estimating Mental Health Conditions of Patients with Opioid Use Disorder

Abstract

Objectives Noninvasive estimation of cortical activity aberrance may be a challenge but gives valuable clues of mental health in patients. The goal of the present study was to characterize specificity of electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes used to assess spectral powers associated with mental health conditions of patients with opioid use disorder. Methods This retrospective study included 16 patients who had been diagnosed with opioid use disorder in comparison with 16 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. EEG electrodes were placed in the frontal (FP1, FP2, F3, F4, F7, F8, and Fz), central (C3, C4, and Cz), temporal (T3, T4, T5, and T6), parietal (P3, P4, and Pz), and occipital scalp (O1 and O2). Spectral powers of δ, θ, α, β, and γ oscillations were determined, and their distribution was topographically mapped with those electrodes on the scalp. Results Compared to healthy controls, the spectral powers at low frequencies (<8 Hz; δ and θ) were increased in most electrodes across the scalp, while powers at the high frequencies (>12 Hz; β and γ) were selectively increased only at electrodes located in the frontal and central scalp. Among 19 electrodes, F3, F4, Fz, and Cz were highly specific in detecting increases in δ, θ, β, and γ powers of patients with opioid use disorders. Conclusion Results of the present study demonstrate that spectral powers are topographically distributed across the scalp, which can be quantitatively characterized. Electrodes located at F3, F4, Fz, and Cz could be specifically utilized to assess mental health in patients with opioid use disorders. Mechanisms responsible for neuroplasticity involving cortical pyramidal neurons and μ-opioid receptor regulations are discussed within the context of changes in EEG microstates.

Characteristic changes in EEG spectral powers of patients with opioid-use disorder as compared with those with methamphetamine- and alcohol-use disorders

“…It has been suggested that adjacent electrodes are functionally coherent although such relationship for two distant electrodes, particularly at different cortical subregions, does not exist [29,30]. Findings that EEG amplitudes of adjacent electrodes were at the same level [18] support the coherent hypothesis. This suggests that, despite different electrodes but physical adjacency, their spectral powers could be grouped to determine functional changes.…”

“…Only one time of data prior to rehab treatment was approved by the IRAs to be used in the present study. EEG data were downloaded from the database as described previously [18]. Briefly, raw data was edited using the editing tool within the NeuroGuide software to remove physical artifacts (including eye movement, jaw movement, and gross movement) and was then visually inspected.…”

Do Histories of Painful Life Experiences Affect the Expression of Empathy Among Young Adults? An Electroencephalography Study

“…We intended to focus on the frontal regions since previous studies have shown that activity in the regions was significantly associated with empathic responses and pain perception (Rameson et al, 2012;Morelli et al, 2014). These seven electrodes are associated with the frontal regions (Minnerly et al, 2019) and were used as the foci of statistical analyses.…”

Characteristic changes in EEG spectral powers of patients with opioid-use disorder as compared with those with methamphetamine- and alcohol-use disorders

“…EEG data were downloaded from the database as described previously (Minnerly et al, 2019). Briefly, raw data was edited using the editing tool within the NeuroGuide software to remove physical artifacts (including eye movement, jaw movement, and gross movement) and was then visually inspected.…”

“…By analysis of delta/δ, theta/θ, alpha/α, beta/β, and gamma/γ waves, it was found that all of the five spectral powers was 71 elevated with almost equipotency in the frontal, central, temporal, parietal, and occipital 72 subregions of patients with OUD (Wang et al, 2015). However, others demonstrated that it was only certain spectra, but not all, that were elevated in the cortical subregions (Polunina & Davydov, 2004;Greenwald & Roehrs, 2005;Motlagh et al, 2018;Minnerly et al, 2019). The selective effects are also reported in MUD and AUD.…”