Fein George, Greenstein David, Cardenas Valerie A, Cuzen Natalie L, Fouche Jean-Paul, Ferrett Helen, Thomas Keven, Stein Dan J
Neurobehavioral Research Inc., Honolulu, HI, United States.
Psychiatry Res. 2013 Oct 30;214(1):1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2013.06.001. Epub 2013 Aug 2.
Most prior studies of the effects of excessive alcohol intake on the adolescent brain examined alcohol-use-dependent samples with comorbid psychiatric and substance use disorders. In the Cape Town region, we identified a sizeable cohort of adolescents with alcohol use disorders (AUD) without externalizing or other psychiatric disorders. We examined brain morphology in 64 such adolescents compared to age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Magnetic resonance imaging data were analyzed using FSL's FIRST software for subcortical volumes, and cortical gray matter (GM) was analyzed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and regions of interest (ROI) analysis. AUD boys had smaller thalamic and putamen volumes compared to non-drinking boys, while AUD girls had larger thalamic and putamen volumes compared to non-drinking girls. VBM revealed a large region of decreased GM density in AUDs compared to controls located in the left lateral frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes, extending medially deep into the parietal lobe. Smaller GM volume in this region was also present when examined using ROI analysis. Our lack of findings in other brain regions, particularly the hippocampus, suggests that reports of smaller brain volumes in adolescent AUDs in the literature are a consequence of psychiatric and substance abuse comorbidities.
大多数先前关于过量饮酒对青少年大脑影响的研究，考察的是患有共病精神疾病和物质使用障碍的酒精使用依赖样本。在开普敦地区，我们识别出了一大批患有酒精使用障碍（AUD）但无外化行为或其他精神疾病的青少年。我们将64名此类青少年的脑形态与年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者进行了比较。使用FSL的FIRST软件分析磁共振成像数据以获取皮质下体积，使用基于体素的形态测量法（VBM）和感兴趣区域（ROI）分析来分析皮质灰质（GM）。与不饮酒的男孩相比，患有AUD的男孩丘脑和壳核体积更小，而与不饮酒的女孩相比，患有AUD的女孩丘脑和壳核体积更大。VBM显示，与对照组相比，AUD患者左侧额叶、颞叶和顶叶存在一大片GM密度降低的区域，向内延伸至顶叶深部。使用ROI分析时，该区域的GM体积也较小。我们在其他脑区，尤其是海马体中未发现相关结果，这表明文献中关于青少年AUD患者脑体积较小的报道是精神疾病和药物滥用共病的结果。
