Biomarkers of Relapse in Cocaine Use Disorder: A Narrative Review

Cocaine use disorder is a chronic disease with severe consequences and a high relapse rate. There is a critical need to explore the factors influencing relapse in order to achieve more efficient treatment outcomes. Furthermore, there is a great need for easy-to-measure, repeatable, and valid biomarkers that can predict treatment response or relapse.

We reviewed the available literature on the Pubmed database concerning the biomarkers associated with relapse in CUD, including central nervous system-derived, genetic, immune, oxidative stress, and "other" biomarkers.

Fifty-one articles were included in our analysis. Twenty-five imaging brain anatomic and function assessment studies, mostly using fMRI, examined the role of several structures such as the striatum activity in abstinence prediction. There were fewer studies assessing the use of neuropsychological factors, neurotrophins, or genetic/genomic factors, immune system, or oxidative stress measures to predict abstinence.

Several biomarkers have been shown to have predictive value. Prospective studies using combined multimodal assessments are now warranted.