Regional cerebral blood flow abnormalities in chronic solvent abusers

• Published in: Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences Vol. 53; no. 3; pp. 351 - 356
• Main Authors: Okada, Shin‐Ichi, Yamanouchi, Naoto, Kodama, Kazuhiro, Uchida, Yoshitaka, Hirai, Shinji, Sakamoto, Tadashi, Noda, Shingo, Komatsu, Naoya, Sato, Toshio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melbourne, Australia Blackwell Science Pty 01.06.1999; Blackwell Publishing
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; amotivational syndrome; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - blood supply; Brain Ischemia - chemically induced; Brain Ischemia - diagnostic imaging; Dominance, Cerebral - drug effects; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; Drug addiction; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Motivation; Prefrontal Cortex - blood supply; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Regional Blood Flow - drug effects; regional cerebral blood flow; Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms; single photon emission computed tomography; Social Adjustment; solvent abuse; Solvents - adverse effects; Substance-Related Disorders - diagnostic imaging; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; Human; Regional blood flow; Organic solvent; Abuse; Motivation; Adolescent; Young adult; Central nervous system; Hemodynamics; Abstinence; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 1323-1316; 1440-1819
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1440-1819.1999.00557.x

This study aimed to reveal regional abnormalities of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and their relation to amotivational syndrome which causes poor social prognosis in solvent abusers. Sixteen chronic solvent abusers (12 males and four females) along with five normal subjects underwent single photon emission computed tomography with N‐isopropyl‐p[123I]iodoamphetamine. The patients received a clinical evaluation with the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. Using a semiquantitative method (normalized by the parietal cortex count), patients showed a statistically significant decrease in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the bilateral prefrontal cortices (P < 0.01). In addition, the severity of hypoperfusion in the bilateral prefrontal cortices was related to the degree of severity of the avolition–apathy scale on SANS (left; P < 0.05, right; P < 0.01) even after excluding the effect of antipsychotics. These results suggest that rCBF abnormalities, especially in the prefrontal cortex, develop in chronic solvent abusers, and that this frontal hypoperfusion may be a biological basis of amotivational syndrome.