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Published on: November 6, 2018
Serum levels of BDNF are associated with craving in opiate-dependent patients
Annemarie Heberlein1, Kenneth M Dürsteler-MacFarland, Bernd Lenz
1Center for Addiction Research, Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany. heberlein.annemarie@mh-hannover.de
Abstract:
Preclinical study results suggest that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) are involved in the modulation of addictive behaviour. We investigated alterations in serum levels of BDNF and GDNF in opiate-dependent patients (28 males) who received diacetylmorphine treatment within a structured opiate maintenance programme. BDNF (T = 2.735, p = 0.009) serum levels were significantly increased in the opiate-dependent patients as compared with healthy controls (21 males), whereas GDNF serum levels (T = 1.425, p = 0.162) did not differ significantly from GDNF serum levels of the healthy controls. BDNF serum levels were significantly associated with craving for heroin (measured by the Heroin Craving Questionnaire (r = 0.420, p = 0.029) and by the General Craving Scale (r = 0.457, p = 0.016), whereas GDNF serum levels were not associated with psychometric dimensions of heroin craving. In conclusion, our results show a positive association between BDNF serum levels and opiate craving in opiate-dependent patients.
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