Poster No:
627
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Malin Hildebrandt1, Nele Sauer1, Raoul Wuellhorst1, Tanja Endrass1
Institutions:
1TUD Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Saxony
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Nele Sauer
TUD Dresden University of Technology
Dresden, Saxony
Tanja Endrass
TUD Dresden University of Technology
Dresden, Saxony
Introduction:
Individuals with substance use disorders (SUD) show altered frontal, striatal, and insular gray matter volumes (GMV) compared to healthy controls. These groups differ in both the degree of substance use (quantity and frequency of use) and substance-related problems, the symptoms of SUD. Hence, the association of gray matter volumes with SUD may reflect either a specific link to substance-related problems, indicating SUD risk, or result from an underlying association with the degree of substance use. To test this, we applied a dimensional approach examining the incremental association of putative SUD risk factors with substance-related problems beyond the degree of substance use (Hildebrandt et al., 2023). Here, we examined GMV in five preregistered regions of interest for which we expected significant associations between GMV and substance-related problems when controlling for the degree of use.
Methods:
Methods and hypotheses were preregistered (https://osf.io/9b35a). Using voxel-based morphometry, we analyzed structural MRI data of 134 (poly-)substance users (54 female). Participants additionally completed extensive measures of past year substance use and substance-related problems following the DSM-5 SUD diagnostic criteria with an additional severity rating for each symptom (Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5, 2013). We performed linear regressions of GMV in five a priori regions of interest (bilateral ACC, left anterior and posterior insula, right posterior insula, bilateral dorsal striatum) on substance-related problems, the degree of substance use, as well as on substance-related problems controlled for the degree of use. Resulting p-values were Bonferroni-Holm corrected for the number of ROIs.
Results:
While reduced GMV predicted substance-related problems in the left anterior insula (AI; p = .046, β = -.15) and the bilateral anterior cingulate (ACC; p = .006, β = -.18), this association only remained significant when controlling for the degree of use in the left AI (p = .023, β = -.18). GMV reductions in the ACC were associated with the degree of use (p = .025, β = -.15), explaining the bivariate association with substance-related problems. Associations with the other regions were not significant.
Conclusions:
Reduced GMV in the ACC may reflect either substance effects on the brain, or risk for a high degree of substance use. In contrast, reduced GMV in the left AI may reflect specific SUD risk, potentially mediated by altered AI functionality relevant for SUD including incentive motivational, control, and interoceptive processes (Naqvi et al., 2014). Our results substantiate the role of a dimensional approach controlling for the degree of substance use for studying specific links to substance-related problems.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
Anatomical MRI 2
Keywords:
Addictions
ADULTS
Cortex
DISORDERS
MRI
Pre-registration
Psychiatric Disorders
STRUCTURAL MRI
Other - risk factors
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. (2013). American Psychiatric Association.
Hildebrandt, M. K. (2023). 'Dissociating the link of neural correlates of inhibition to the degree of substance use and substance-related problems: A preregistered, multimodal, combined cross-sectional and longitudinal study.' Biological Psychiatry, vol. 94, no.11, pp. 898-905
Naqvi, N. H. (2014). 'The insula: a critical neural substrate for craving and drug seeking under conflict and risk.' Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1316, no. 1, pp. 53-70