The Changes In Function And Structure Of Brain In Heroin Dependence Patients After Different Withdrawal Stages

PART ONE: OBJECTIVE: To study the brain functional change at the conscious resting state in patients with heroin dependence after withdrawal. METHODS: The blood oxygenation level dependent fMRI was used to test the resting brain function. Three groups of patients with heroin dependence were recruited for the experiment. The patients were tested on the third (n=10), the 30th (n=10) and 60th (n=14) days after the last use of heroin, and 12 normal people were recruited as control. RESULT: Compared with control group, we found that the heroin addicts showed significantly decreased (P < 0.005) BOLD signal in medial frontal gyms, cingulated gyms, and superior temporal gyrus in 3 days of abstinence. The frontal lobe deficits were further worsened and the hippocampus began to be abnormal in the first month of withdrawal. All the dysfunction mentioned above tended to be normalized in the second month of abstinence. CONCLUTION: The function of resting brain in heroin dependence patients shows a U-shaped curve change after withdrawal. The authors hypothesized that the intensity of craving and the possibility of relapse in heroin addicts have the same change pattern as BOLD signal change after withdrawal. In addition, the time causal relationship between worsen function in frontal lob and the abnormity in hippocampus provides the new evidence of motivation theory of drug addiction.