Neuroimaging Predicts Recovery, Relapse Risk for Substance Addiction Therapy

New neuroimaging research offers early clues that by measuring brain activity, researchers can predict who is likely to have an easier time getting off drugs and alcohol, and who will need more help for recovery.

“We can also see how brain activity changes as people recover from their addictions,” said Joshua Brown, assistant professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA), part of the College of Arts and Sciences.

The persistent occurrence of relapse highlights the need for improved methods of treatment and relapse prevention. One potential reason for relapse is deficient self-regulatory control over behavior and decision-making. Specifically this lack of self-regulatory ability in substance-dependent individuals has been linked with dysfunction of a mesolimbic-frontal brain network. Decreased activity within this self-regulatory brain network has earlier been associated with relapse, but the specific relationship between this network, self-regulatory ability and recovery, is still to be understood.

This study looked at neurophysiologic and cognitive indicators of self-regulatory ability in a community-based cohort of substance-dependent individuals during the first three months of addiction treatment. The study participants’ risk-taking tendencies through what is called a balloon analog risk task, a game in which the participants can decide whether to add increasing amounts of air to a balloon, earning rewards until it bursts.

Those who took greater risks were shown to have reduced brain activity. Contrarily, those who took less risk showed greater brain activity. By three months, those who were successful in treatment also demonstrated a brain activation pattern that corresponded with the risk level of cues during the balloon risk task decision-making. In individuals who relapsed, risk-related activation was limited to specific brain regions, possibly signaling the anticipated reward instead of the risk of negative outcome.

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Indiana University, Bloomington