Gray and white matter morphology in substance use disorders: A neuroimaging systematic review and meta-analysis

Pando-Naude, Victor; Toxto, Sebastian; Fernandez-Lozano, Sofia; Parsons, E. Christine; Alcauter, Sarael; Garza-Villarreal, Eduardo A.

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are characterized by a compulsion to seek and consume one or more substances of abuse, with a perceived loss of control and negative emotional state. Repeated use of a substance results in synaptic and morphological changes, secondary to toxicity and SUD pathology in the dopamine striato-thalamo-cortical and limbic pathways. These neuroadaptations seem to vary between studies, which could be related to divergent effects of substances, consumption severity or other unknown factors. We therefore identified studies investigating the effects of SUDs using volumetric whole-brain voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in gray (GM) and white matter (WM). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of VBM studies using the anatomic likelihood estimation (ALE) method implemented in GingerALE (PROSPERO pre-registration CRD42017071222). Fifty studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the final quantitative meta-analysis, with a total of 538 foci, 88 experiments and 4370 participants. We found convergence and divergence in brain regions and volume effects (higher vs lower volume) in GM and WM depending on the severity of consumption pattern and type of substance. Convergent pathology was evident across substances in GM of the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, putamen, and thalamus, and in WM of the thalamic radiation and internal capsule bundle. Divergent pathology between occasional use (cortical pathology) and addiction (cortical-subcortical pathology) provides evidence of a possible top-down neuroadaptation. Our findings indicate distinctive brain morphometry alterations in SUDs, which may inform our understanding of disease progression and ultimately therapeutic approaches.