Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39126661›Full record

ArticleJournal of studies on alcohol and drugs2025

Frontal Brain N-Acetylaspartate at Treatment Entry is Related to Future World Health Organization Risk Drinking Levels in Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder.

April C May, Lauren H Stephens, Eric P Kraybill, Dieter J Meyerhoff, Timothy C Durazzo

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

April C MayPalo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Centers (MIRECC), Palo Alto, California.
Lauren H StephensDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.
Eric P KraybillPalo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Centers (MIRECC), Palo Alto, California.
Dieter J MeyerhoffCenter for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIND), San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, California.
Timothy C DurazzoPalo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Centers (MIRECC), Palo Alto, California.

Funding

The Biological Basis of Alcohol Induced Brain DamageR01AA010788 · NIAAA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO · PI MEYERHOFF, DIETER J · 1996 to 2016
$8.9M
Fellowship on Biological Psychiatry and NeuroscienceT32MH018399 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI Pei-an (Betty) Shih · 1986 to 2026
$7.3M
The Neurobiological and Neurocognitive Consequences of Chronic Cigarette SmokingK01DA024136 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI DURAZZO, TIMOTHY CRAIG · 2008 to 2012
$785k
NIAAA NIH HHS R01 AA010788NIDA NIH HHS K01 DA024136NIMH NIH HHS T32 MH018399
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveThe purpose of this study was to assess the viability of regional brain metabolite levels of individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) at treatment entry as a biomarker of posttreatment levels of alcohol use, categorized according to the World Health Organization risk drinking levels (WHO-RDL).

methodEighty-five individuals initiating treatment for AUD (16 ± 13 days after last alcohol consumption) and 45 light/nondrinking controls completed a 1.5T proton multislice magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging study. N-acetylaspartate (NAA), a marker of neuronal viability, and other metabolites were quantitated for cortical gray matter, white matter, and select subcortical regions. Individuals with AUD were classified according to their posttreatment alcohol consumption as abstainers (

resultsWithin frontal gray matter, higher risk participants exhibited significantly lower NAA levels than light/nondrinking controls and abstainers but did not differ from low-risk participants. Higher risk participants had significantly lower NAA concentration in frontal white matter than all groups who did not significantly differ from one another. Higher risk participants showed significantly lower parietal white matter NAA than light/nondrinking controls and abstainers; low-risk and higher risk participants did not differ from one another. Across higher risk and low risk, lower frontal gray matter and white matter NAA were related to shorter periods of abstinence before first posttreatment alcohol consumption and longer posttreatment duration of alcohol resumption. There were no significant group differences in myo-inositol or choline- or creatine-containing compound concentrations.

conclusionsFrontal and parietal lobar NAA concentrations, near treatment entry, are associated with WHO-RDL categorized posttreatment alcohol consumption levels and may serve as predictive biomarkers of clinical outcomes following treatment for AUD.

Indexed as

Alcohol DrinkingAlcoholismAspartic AcidFrontal LobeAdultBiomarkersFemaleGray MatterHumansMagnetic Resonance SpectroscopyMaleMiddle AgedWorld Health OrganizationAspartic AcidBiomarkersN-acetylaspartate

Identifiers

PMID39126661
PMCPMC12081170

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.