Cortical Thickness in Alcohol Dependent Patients With Apathy

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Structural brain changes are common in patients with alcohol dependence (PADs).
• Apathy is a clinical feature that can worsen alcohol misuse, but its structural brain correlates are not well understood.
• Identifying these correlates is crucial for understanding and potentially treating apathy in alcoholism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate regional differences in cortical thickness between PADs and healthy controls (HCs).
• To examine the correlation between cortical thickness in specific brain regions and the severity of apathy in PADs.

Main Methods:

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to assess cortical thickness in 148 regions in 33 male PADs and 35 male HCs.
• FreeSurfer software was employed for image analysis.
• Apathy was measured using the Lille Apathy Rating Scale-Informant (LARS-I), and regression analyses explored relationships between cortical thickness and apathy scores.

Main Results:

• PADs exhibited significantly reduced cortical thickness in the occipito-temporal cortex (OTC), superior parietal cortex (SPC), and inferior parietal cortex (IPC) compared to HCs.
• Cortical thickness in these three regions was negatively correlated with total apathy scores.
• Inferior parietal cortex (IPC) thickness also showed a negative correlation with the action initiation subscore of the LARS-I.

Conclusions:

• Reduced cortical thickness in bilateral parietal and occipito-temporal cortices are identified as potential neural markers for apathy in patients with alcohol dependence.
• These findings contribute to understanding the neural underpinnings of apathy, a significant clinical feature in individuals with alcoholism.