BRAIN AREA SMALLER IN COCAINE ADDICTS

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BRAIN AREA SMALLER IN COCAINE ADDICTS

 

Posted By: Seidr <Send E-Mail>

Tuesday, 23 November 2004, 7:04 a.m.

 

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=59883

 

NEW FROM NEIL SLADE:

 

Greetings Brain Explorers!

 

Scientists now document that cocaine addicts have smaller amygdalae.

 

First the official news blurb:

Brain Area Found to Be Smaller in Cocaine Addicts

 

Fri Nov 19,10:03 AM ET Health - Reuters

 

By Amy Norton

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A part of the brain involved in both drug

craving and judgment appears to be smaller in cocaine addicts than in

healthy people, researchers have found.

 

Analyzing brain scans from 27 people addicted to cocaine and 27

healthy adults of the same age, the researchers found that in the drug

abusers, a brain structure called the amygdala was smaller than normal.

 

Exactly what the finding means is not yet clear, but several pieces of

evidence suggest that reduced volume in the amygdala may predispose a

person to cocaine addiction, the study's senior author told Reuters

Health.

 

The amygdala is a collection of nuclei in the brain involved in the

processing of emotion. Brain-imaging studies have tied drug craving to

activity in the amygdala, and recent research has also suggested that

the brain structure aids in sizing up the potential negative outcomes

of an action.

 

It's such judgment that people with drug addiction typically lack, Dr.

Hans C. Breiter of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston noted in

an interview with Reuters Health.

 

His team's study, published in the November 18th issue of the journal

Neuron, cannot answer the question of whether smaller amygdala volume

is a contributor to or consequence of cocaine addiction, Breiter said.

 

However, he pointed to evidence that supports a causal role. For

example, amygdala volume did not correspond with the level of a

person's drug abuse; cocaine users in the study had abused the drug

for anywhere from one to 27 years, yet had similar reductions in

amygdala size.

 

In addition, Breiter explained, during normal development, the

right-hemisphere amygdala becomes larger than the left. However, in

these cocaine addicts, he said, " there was a loss of this asymmetry. "

 

It seems unlikely, the researcher noted, that drug abuse would have

affected only one side of the brain in these individuals. Instead, he

said, such a loss of asymmetry in the amygdala would seem to have

genetic underpinnings.

 

But if a reduction in amygdala volume is involved in cocaine

addiction, the implications would be great regardless of whether it's

a cause or effect, according to Breiter.

 

If even short-term cocaine abuse can cause such " dramatic "

degenerative change in the brain, he said,

that would highlight a

prime danger of the drug.

 

On the other hand, if smaller amygdala volume raises a person's

vulnerability to cocaine addiction, then it offers a potential way to

reveal that risk.

 

According to Breiter, it might become possible for

people with a family history of any forms of addiction to get a brain

scan of the amygdala to see if they have this structural predisposition.

 

The fact that the amygdala appears to be involved in judging the

potential pitfalls of an action may help explain how an abnormality in

its structure could make a person susceptible to cocaine addiction,

according to Breiter.

 

However, there is also the amygdala's role in drug craving. An

interesting finding, Breiter noted, was that " the smaller the amygdala

was, the more they craved for cocaine. "

 

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