Mental Health Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
Psychiatric Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
BMC Psychiatry. 2021 May 11;21(1):247. doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03244-9.
Previous research using whole-brain neuroimaging techniques has revealed structural differences of grey matter (GM) in alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients. However, some of the findings diverge from other neuroimaging studies and require further replication. The quantity of relevant research has, thus far, been limited and the association between GM and abstinence duration of AUD patients has not yet been systematically reviewed.
The present research conducted a meta-analysis of voxel-based GM studies in AUD patients published before Jan 2021. The study utilised a whole brain-based d-mapping approach to explore GM changes in AUD patients, and further analysed the relationship between GM deficits, abstinence duration and individual differences.
The current research included 23 studies with a sample size of 846 AUD patients and 878 controls. The d-mapping approach identified lower GM in brain regions including the right cingulate gyrus, right insula and left middle frontal gyrus in AUD patients compared to controls. Meta-regression analyses found increasing GM atrophy in the right insula associated with the longer mean abstinence duration of the samples in the studies in our analysis. GM atrophy was also found positively correlated with the mean age of the samples in the right insula, and positively correlated with male ratio in the left middle frontal gyrus.
GM atrophy was found in the cingulate gyrus and insula in AUD patients. These findings align with published meta-analyses, suggesting they are potential deficits for AUD patients. Abstinence duration, age and gender also affect GM atrophy in AUD patients. This research provides some evidence of the underlying neuroanatomical nature of AUD.
先前使用全脑神经影像学技术的研究揭示了酒精使用障碍（AUD）患者大脑灰质（GM）的结构差异。然而，一些发现与其他神经影像学研究存在分歧，需要进一步验证。到目前为止，相关研究的数量有限，GM 与 AUD 患者戒断时间的关系尚未得到系统审查。
本研究对 2021 年 1 月前发表的 AUD 患者基于体素的 GM 研究进行了荟萃分析。该研究采用全脑 d-mapping 方法来探索 AUD 患者的 GM 变化，并进一步分析 GM 缺陷、戒断时间与个体差异之间的关系。
本研究纳入了 23 项研究，样本量为 846 名 AUD 患者和 878 名对照。d-mapping 方法发现，与对照组相比，AUD 患者大脑右侧扣带回、右侧岛叶和左侧额中回等区域的 GM 减少。元回归分析发现，右侧岛叶 GM 萎缩与我们分析中的研究样本的平均戒断时间延长有关。GM 萎缩还与右侧岛叶样本的平均年龄呈正相关，与左侧额中回的男性比例呈正相关。
AUD 患者的扣带回和岛叶出现 GM 萎缩。这些发现与已发表的荟萃分析一致，表明它们是 AUD 患者的潜在缺陷。戒断时间、年龄和性别也会影响 AUD 患者的 GM 萎缩。本研究为 AUD 的潜在神经解剖学性质提供了一些证据。
