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Neuroimaging Biomarkers in Addiction.
Hamed Ekhtiari1, Arshiya Sangchooli1, Owen Carmichael1
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA (Ekhtiari); Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR), Tulsa, OK, USA (Ekhtiari, Paulus); School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (Sangchooli); Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA (Carmichael); Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA (Oquendo, Childress); Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA (Moeller); Translational Medicine, Sage Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA, USA and McLean Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA (O'Donnell); Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA (Pizzaggali); National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD, USA (Ramey); Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA (Schacht); Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies (INCAS), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Zare-Bidoky); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA (Brady).
Neuroimaging reveals brain changes in addiction, offering potential biomarkers for personalized treatments. These brain markers can predict treatment response and guide novel interventions for substance use disorders.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Addiction Research
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Addiction is a chronic, relapsing neurobiological disorder.
- Neuroimaging provides insights into brain activity, structure, and function in addiction.
- Aberrations in reward, salience, inhibition, and executive functions are implicated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review neuroimaging modalities and biomarkers in addiction.
- To discuss the clinical relevance and potential of neuroimaging biomarkers.
- To explore future directions for bench-to-bedside translation.
Main Methods:
- Systematic search of ClinicalTrials.gov for addiction protocols using neuroimaging.
- Systematic review of PubMed meta-analyses on neuroimaging in addiction.
- Analysis of neuroimaging modalities including fMRI, PET, EEG, structural MRI, and MRS.
Main Results:
- 409 clinical trial protocols utilize neuroimaging in addiction research.
- Functional MRI (fMRI) is the most common modality (N=268).
- 61 meta-analyses suggest potential neuroimaging biomarkers for addiction.
Conclusions:
- Neuroimaging biomarkers can identify vulnerability, predict treatment response, and measure recovery.
- Biomarkers can inform personalized pharmacological, neuromodulatory, and psychotherapeutic interventions.
- Integrating biomarkers with neuromodulation offers precise, personalized addiction treatments.
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