Temporal-medial prefrontal circuitry identified in non-treatment seeking cocaine users predicts relapse in an independent cohort of treated cocaine dependent individuals

Abstract

Background: Both clinical and preclinical data support differences in brain structure and functional connectivity following chronic cocaine use; however, results have not been consistent between studies. To date, few studies have explored the relationship between structural differences and functional network differences in chronic cocaine users, which might improve reliability of results. Further, differences found in cocaine users are not often investigated as predictors of treatment outcome, and have never, to the best of our knowledge, been applied to an independent sample. In this study, we identify brain areas where cortical thickness differs between non-treatment seeking cocaine users (NTSCU) and healthy controls (HC). We then use these areas of difference as seeds in resting connectivity analyses to identify network alterations that relate to the structural differences. Finally, we apply the circuits found to differ between NTSCU and HC to an independent cohort of treated cocaine dependent (TxCD) individuals scanned in the final week of a residential treatment program and followed for six months.