ReviewDrug and alcohol dependence2019
Substance abuse and white matter: Findings, limitations, and future of diffusion tensor imaging research.
Review in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 3 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
53 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review on Common and Distinct Neural Correlates of Risk-taking in Substance-related and Non-substance Related Addictions.Neuropsychology review · 2023Pooled it
- Measuring white matter microstructure in 1,457 cannabis users and 1,441 controls: A systematic review of diffusion-weighted MRI studies.Frontiers in neuroimaging · 2023Pooled it
- A coordinate-based meta-analysis of white matter alterations in patients with alcohol use disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Acute effects of different types of cannabis on young adult and adolescent resting-state brain networks.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Alexithymia mediates white-matter microstructure and substance use escalation in trauma-exposed individuals.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- White matter signatures of addiction diverge across opioids, cannabis and nicotine and predict impulsive choice in cannabis dependence.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Beyond the Wiring: White Matter as a Dynamic Regulator of Brain Function and Disease.Neuroscience bulletin · 2026Review
- Spontaneous oxycodone withdrawal alters behavior and oligodendrocyte-related gene expression in mice.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2026Article
- White matter microstructure alterations from alcohol use disorder persist into early abstinence.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Phenome-wide analysis of genetically imputed neuroimaging phenotypes reveals associations with psychiatric traits in a multi-ancestry cohort.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Antemortem radiologic and histopathologic presentation of Marchiafava-Bignami disease.Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology · 2025Article
- Brain Connectivity of the Cingulate Cortex in Alcohol Use Disorder: Exploring Its Association With Mindfulness.Addiction biology · 2025Article
- Assessing biological self-organization patterns using statistical complexity characteristics: a tool for diffusion tensor imaging analysis.Magma (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- White matter microstructural alterations are associated with cognitive decline in benzodiazepine use disorders: a multi-shell diffusion magnetic resonance imaging study.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- Sex-based Influences on White Matter Tract Integrity in Alcohol Use Disorder: a Systematic Review.Current addiction reports · 2025Article
- Effects of insecure attachment on fMRI resting state functional connectivity in poly drug use disorder.PloS one · 2025Observational
- Diffusion tensor imaging assessments to investigate motor impairment recovery after minor basal ganglia hemorrhage post-stereotactic surgery.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces nicotine dependence and potentially modulates white matter microstructure in smokers: a pilot study by diffusion spectrum imaging.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Increased white blood cell in young adults with family histories of alcohol and other substance use disorders.Addiction biology · 2024Article
- Pleiotropy and genetically inferred causality linking multisite chronic pain to substance use disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Individuals who abuse substances often differ from nonusers in their brain structure. Substance abuse and addiction is often associated with atrophy and pathology of grey matter, but much less is known about the role of white matter, which constitutes over half of human brain volume. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a method for non-invasively estimating white matter, is increasingly being used to study addiction and substance abuse. Here we review recent DTI studies of major substances of abuse (alcohol, opiates, cocaine, cannabis, and nicotine substance abuse) to examine the relationship, specificity, causality, and permanence of substance-related differences in white matter microstructure. Across substance, users tended to exhibit differences in the microstructure of major fiber pathways, such as the corpus callosum. The direction of these differences, however, appeared substance-dependent. The subsample of longitudinal studies reviewed suggests that substance abuse may cause changes in white matter, though it is unclear to what extent such alterations are permanent. While collectively informative, some studies reviewed were limited by methodological and technical approach. We therefore also provide methodological guidance for future research using DTI to study substance abuse.
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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.