ArticleBiological psychiatry2011
Brain morphology at entry into treatment for alcohol dependence is related to relapse propensity.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Imaging resilience and recovery in alcohol dependence.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2018Pooled it
- White matter volume in alcohol use disorders: a meta-analysis.Addiction biology · 2013Pooled it
- Cannabidiol attenuates precuneus activation during appetitive cue exposure in individuals with alcohol use disorder.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Trial
- Naltrexone differentially modulates the neural correlates of motor impulse control in abstinent alcohol-dependent and polysubstance-dependent individuals.The European journal of neuroscience · 2019Trial
- Effects of a GABA-ergic medication combination and initial alcohol withdrawal severity on cue-elicited brain activation among treatment-seeking alcoholics.Psychopharmacology · 2013Trial
- Alcohol effects on associative and sensorimotor cortico-thalamo-basal ganglia circuits alter decision making and alcohol intake.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2025Review
- Differing Effects of Alcohol Use on Epigenetic and Brain Age in Adult Children of Parents with Alcohol Use Disorder.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Emotion-related impulsivity is related to orbitofrontal cortical sulcation.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2024Article
- Regional cortical brain volumes at treatment entry relates to post treatment WHO risk drinking levels in those with alcohol use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2024Article
- Emotion-related impulsivity is related to orbitofrontal cortical sulcation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Cortical Thickness of the Orbitofrontal Cortex in Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Caudate gray matter volumes and risk of relapse in Type A alcohol-dependent patients: A 7-year MRI follow-up study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Medication overuse headache and substance use disorder: A comparison based on basic research and neuroimaging.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Review
- Adaptation of the 5-choice serial reaction time task to measure engagement and motivation for alcohol in mice.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Alcohol and the Brain.Nutrients · 2021Review
- Better living through understanding the insula: Why subregions can make all the difference.Neuropharmacology · 2021Review
- Brain, behavioral, affective, and sex correlates of recovery from alcohol use disorders.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2021Article
- Problem drinking alters gray matter volume and food cue responses of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex.Addiction biology · 2021Article
- Gray matter alteration in heroin-dependent men: An atlas-based magnetic resonance imaging study.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2020Article
- Changes of frontal cortical subregion volumes in alcohol dependent individuals during early abstinence: associations with treatment outcome.Brain imaging and behavior · 2020Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWe examined whether any differences in brain volumes at entry into alcohol dependence treatment differentiate subsequent Abstainers from Relapsers.
methodsIndividuals in alcohol dependence treatment (n = 75) underwent magnetic resonance imaging approximately 6 ± 4 days after their last alcoholic drink, and 40 age-matched nonsmoking light drinkers (LD) were studied as control subjects. At follow-up 7.8 ± 2.6 months later, 23 alcoholics (31%) had abstained from drinking and 52 (69%) had relapsed. Deformation morphometry compared Relapsers, Abstainers, and LD.
resultsCompared with LD, future Abstainers had smaller brain tissue volumes in the left amygdala, hippocampal head, and entorhinal cortex and bilaterally in the thalamus and adjacent subcortical white matter (WM) and had larger volume in the left lateral orbitofrontal region. Compared with LD, future Relapsers had smaller brain tissue volumes in the right middle temporal, occipital, and superior frontal WM. Compared with future Abstainers, future Relapsers had smaller tissue volumes primarily in bilateral orbitofrontal cortex and surrounding WM. Results were virtually unaffected after controlling for common comorbidities.
conclusionsAt entry into alcohol dependence treatment, the brain structure of future Relapsers differs from that of future Abstainers. Future Relapsers have smaller brain volumes in regions of the mesocorticolimbic reward system that are critically involved in impulse control, emotional regulation, craving, and evaluation and anticipation of stimulus salience and hedonics. Structural abnormalities of this circuitry might confer greater risk for resumption of hazardous drinking after treatment and might contribute to the definition of a neurobiological relapse risk profile in alcohol dependence.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.