Alcohol use is associated with thinner cerebral cortex and larger ventricles in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and healthy controls

Lange, Elisabeth; Nerland, Stener; Jørgensen, Kjetil Nordbø; Mørch-Johnsen, Lynn; Nesvåg, Ragnar; Hartberg, Cecilie B.; Haukvik, Unn K.; Osnes, Kåre; Melle, Ingrid; Andreassen, Ole A.; Agartz, Ingrid

doi:10.1017/s0033291716002920

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 106 publications

(151 reference statements)

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“…A significant strength of our study is the large sample of well characterized and well-matched schizophrenia patients, with only 2 recent studies reaching sample sizes similar to our study (Koenders et al, 2015; Lange et al, 2017). Although the article by Koenders et al is better positioned to address questions regarding the effect of alcohol use on the brain regardless of psychotic disorder diagnosis, our study extends their findings to a large group of individuals with schizophrenia and comorbid alcohol and/or cannabis abuse or dependence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Cannabis use in psychosis patients has been associated with decreased volume in the cingulate cortex (Bangalore et al, 2008; Rapp et al, 2013; Szeszko et al, 2007) and hippocampus (Ebdrup et al, 2010), increased putamen volume (Koenders et al, 2015) or no differences in cannabis users compared to non-users (Cahn et al, 2004; Haller et al, 2013; Malchow et al, 2013b; Solowij et al, 2013; Wobrock et al, 2009). Two early studies examining alcohol use found decreased prefrontal cortex (Mathalon et al, 2003) and cerebellar vermis (Joyal et al, 2004) volume in chronic schizophrenia patients with and without alcohol use disorder, but the majority of studies have found no differences in regional brain volume related to alcohol misuse above and beyond the volume deficits observed in psychosis patients who are non-users (Deshmukh et al, 2005; Gizewski et al, 2013; Lange et al, 2017; Nesvåg et al, 2007; Sullivan et al, 2000; Sullivan et al, 2003; Varnäs et al, 2007). Some of the heterogeneity in region of interest findings can be explained by small sample sizes, differing clinical and demographic characteristics of patient samples, use of alcohol and/or cannabis, severity of substance use, and methods used for volume analysis (VBM vs. automated segmentation vs. manual segmentation).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of substance use disorder on gray matter volume in schizophrenia

Quinn

McHugo

Armstrong

et al. 2018

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging

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Substance use may confound the study of brain structure in schizophrenia. We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine whether differences in regional gray matter volumes exist between schizophrenia patients with (n = 92) and without (n = 66) clinically significant cannabis and/or alcohol use histories compared to 88 healthy control subjects. Relative to controls, patients with schizophrenia had reduced gray matter volume in the bilateral precentral gyrus, right medial frontal cortex, right visual cortex, right occipital pole, right thalamus, bilateral amygdala, and bilateral cerebellum regardless of substance use history. Within these regions, we found no volume differences between patients with schizophrenia and a history of cannabis and/or alcohol compared to patients with schizophrenia without a clinically significant substance use history. Our data support the idea that a clinically meaningful history of alcohol or cannabis use does not significantly compound the gray matter deficits associated with schizophrenia.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of substance use disorder on gray matter volume in schizophrenia

Quinn

McHugo

Armstrong

et al. 2018

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging

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“…Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption was associated with adverse brain outcome in our study, and it was similar with the previous studies. Lange et al (2017) adopted brain MR imaging and the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test’s consumption part (AUDIT-C) in a study of 609 alcohol consuming adults, and found that higher AUDIT-C scores were linearly associated with thinner cortex in some brain regions. An observational cohort study of 550 participants with weekly alcohol intake and cognitive performance measured repeatedly over 30 years, showed that those drinking moderately had three times the odds of right hippocampal atrophy ( Topiwala et al, 2017 ), which was different with our findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol Consumption and Subclinical Findings on Cognitive Function, Biochemical Indexes, and Cortical Anatomy in Cognitively Normal Aging Han Chinese Population

Sun

Zhang

et al. 2018

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Background: Binge drinking of alcohol is associated with brain damage, but less is known about relationship of light-to-moderate alcohol consumption with cognitive function, biochemical indexes, and cortical anatomy. Previous findings have debated on whether light-to-moderate drinking has any health benefits. We investigated cortical thickness and its association with alcohol consumption and cognitive functions in a non-dementia aging Han Chinese population.Methods: 940 non-dementia aging subjects were included in our study (alcohol n = 149; non-alcohol n = 791). Among them, 572 received blood biochemical tests including liver function and lipid metabolism (alcohol n = 100; non-alcohol n = 472) and 141 had brain magnetic resonance imaging (alcohol n = 27; non-alcohol n = 114). The Beijing version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Chinese version of the neuropsychological test battery were used to assess cognitive functions.Results: There was no significant difference in cognitive functions between alcohol and non-alcohol groups in the overall database. Similarly, there was no significant difference in liver function and lipid metabolism between two groups in the sub-database. The left superiortemporal gyrus was one of age sensitive regions and alcohol consumption was significantly associated with thinner cortex of the left superiotemporal cluster in the sub-database.Conclusion: Alcohol consumption was not significantly associated with better or worse cognitive function and biochemical indexes abnormality, however, significantly associated with thinner cortex of the left superiortemporal gyrus in cognitively normal aging Han Chinese population.

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“…It is plausible that the addition of TBV as a covariate decreased our power to detect effects, or that adjusted CT values are more sensitive in revealing a relation between striatal DA responses and cortical morphometry. Indeed, there is little consensus as to whether TBV/ICV should [66] or should not [4],[67],[68] be included as a covariate in CT analyses in the context of substance use research. More broadly, there is limited agreement as to how CT should be analyzed (i.e., absolute vs .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is there a relation between novelty seeking, striatal dopamine release and frontal cortical thickness?

et al. 2017

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BackgroundNovelty-seeking (NS) and impulsive personality traits have been proposed to reflect an interplay between fronto-cortical and limbic systems, including the limbic striatum (LS). Although neuroimaging studies have provided some evidence for this, most are comprised of small samples and many report surprisingly large effects given the challenges of trying to relate a snapshot of brain function or structure to an entity as complex as personality. The current work tested a priori hypotheses about associations between striatal dopamine (DA) release, cortical thickness (CT), and NS in a large sample of healthy adults.MethodsFifty-two healthy adults (45M/7F; age: 23.8±4.93) underwent two positron emission tomography scans with [11C]raclopride (specific for striatal DA D2/3 receptors) with or without amphetamine (0.3 mg/kg, p.o.). Structural magnetic resonance image scans were acquired, as were Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire data. Amphetamine-induced changes in [11C]raclopride binding potential values (ΔBPND) were examined in the limbic, sensorimotor (SMS) and associative (AST) striatum. CT measures, adjusted for whole brain volume, were extracted from the dorsolateral sensorimotor and ventromedial/limbic cortices.ResultsBPND values were lower in the amphetamine vs. no-drug sessions, with the largest effect in the LS. When comparing low vs. high LS ΔBPND groups (median split), higher NS2 (impulsiveness) scores were found in the high ΔBPND group. Partial correlations (age and gender as covariates) yielded a negative relation between ASTS ΔBPND and sensorimotor CT; trends for inverse associations existed between ΔBPND values in other striatal regions and frontal CT. In other words, the greater the amphetamine-induced striatal DA response, the thinner the frontal cortex.ConclusionsThese data expand upon previously reported associations between striatal DA release in the LS and both NS related impulsiveness and CT in the largest sample reported to date. The findings add to the plausibility of these associations while suggesting that the effects are likely weaker than has been previously proposed.

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Alcohol use is associated with thinner cerebral cortex and larger ventricles in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and healthy controls

Cited by 25 publications

References 106 publications

Impact of substance use disorder on gray matter volume in schizophrenia

Impact of substance use disorder on gray matter volume in schizophrenia

Alcohol Consumption and Subclinical Findings on Cognitive Function, Biochemical Indexes, and Cortical Anatomy in Cognitively Normal Aging Han Chinese Population

Is there a relation between novelty seeking, striatal dopamine release and frontal cortical thickness?

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