Citation

Courtney KE, Ghahremani DG, Ray LA. Neuropsychopharmacology 2016; 41(12): 2872-2881.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/npp.2016.99

PMID

27312405

Abstract

Interactions between dopaminergic and opioidergic systems have been implicated in the reinforcing properties of drugs of abuse. The present study investigated the effects of opioid blockade, via naltrexone, on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures during methamphetamine cue-reactivity to elucidate the role of endogenous opioids in the neural systems underlying drug craving. To investigate this question, non-treatment seeking individuals with methamphetamine use disorders (N=23; 74% male, mean age=34.70 [SD=8.95]) were recruited for a randomized, placebo controlled, within-subject design and underwent a visual methamphetamine cue-reactivity task during two blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI sessions following three days of naltrexone (50 mg) and matched time for placebo. fMRI analyses tested naltrexone-induced differences in BOLD activation and functional connectivity during cue processing. The results showed that naltrexone administration reduced cue-reactivity in sensorimotor regions and related to altered functional connectivity of dorsal striatum, VTA, and precuneus with frontal, visual, sensory, and motor-related regions. Naltrexone also weakened the associations between subjective craving and precuneus functional connectivity with sensorimotor regions and strengthened the associations between subjective craving and dorsal striatum and precuneus connectivity with frontal regions. In conclusion, this study provides the first evidence that opioidergic blockade alters neural responses to drug cues in humans with methamphetamine addiction and suggests that naltrexone may be reducing drug cue salience by decreasing the involvement of sensorimotor regions and by engaging greater frontal regulation over salience attribution.Neuropsychopharmacology accepted article preview online, 17 June 2016. doi:10.1038/npp.2016.99.

Language: en