Cue exposure and alcohol dependancy - a PET activation study

NemoImage

13, Number

6, 2001,

Part 2 of 2 Parts ID

E@lw

PSYCHIATRY

Cue exposure and alcohol dependancy - a PET activation study Freimut D Juengling*,

Gaby ValeriustS, Jan Kassubekg, Egbert Nitzsche*, Bernd Fe&S, Hans OlbrichS

*Division of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Freiburg, Germany TDepartment of Psychology, University Freiburg, Germany $Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Freiburg, Germany SDepartment of Neurology, University Hospital Freiburg, Germany Introduction: Craving

is confirmed

to have a strong

influence

on relapse

frequency

in alcohol

dependancy.

Objectives: To investigate beverage. Materials

functional

cerebral

correlates

in early abstinent

alcoholics

during

cue exposure

to their individual

favorite

alcoholic

and Methods:

12 male patients with the diagnosis of chronic alcoholism were investigated by dynamic HisO-PET measurements during visual and olfactory exposure to table water (baseline condition) as well as to their individual favorite alcoholic beverage (activation). As it is hypothesized, that during the experiment no “real” baseline condition will be reached once cue exposure has happened, the design implied two subsequent baseline measurements followed by two activation conditions (bbaa). During PET measurements, a six-channel-EEG registration was performed simultaneously. Immediately after each experiment, the patient rated the degree of craving on a ten point scale. Data analysis was performed according to previously defined standards (1) using statistical parametric mapping (SPM99) and activated voxel clusters with Z-values equivalent to p
S1062

PF. Am J Psychiatry 1999 Jan;156(1):1

l-8

1998