Meta-analysis of grey matter atrophy in cocaine user disorder

Abstract

Several studies have demonstrated anatomical alterations in cocaine use disorder subjects compared to healthy controls. Using voxel based morphometry, previous research have obtained results that show regional grey matter atrophy and hypertrophy in cocaine´s target regions. There are a number of studies analyzing structural changes in cocaine addicts but there results are no fully congruent showing a low convergence across studies. We have done a systematic review and an activation likelihood activation (ALE) meta-analysis to extract an alteration pattern in subjects that had been diagnosed of cocaine use disorder (CUD). We selected 19 studies which fulfilled all the inclusion criteria, which encompasses total of CUD subjects and 116 focis were included in meta-analysis process. We found grey matter atrophy in frontal cortex, parietal lobes and cerebellum of CUD. On the other hand, we found increased grey matter volume in basal ganglia, cerebellum and middle frontal regions of CUD. These anatomical alteration may subserve as possible explanation to disexcutive and motivational symptoms which are central in addiction problems.