Gender and Neural Substrates of Stress and Craving
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2010-08-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Cocaine dependence is an insidious disease underscored by a powerful proclivity to relapse
despite an individual's ability to recognize the deleterious consequences of continued drug
use. To date, there are only a limited number of treatments, and no FDA approved medications
for the treatment of cocaine dependence. Attempts to find reliable and successful treatments
for cocaine dependence may be marred by gender differences in brain chemistry, structure, and
function that are manifested as drug craving and relapse. For example, cues, drug exposure,
and stress promote relapse, yet females appear be more susceptible to stress induced relapse,
while males may be more susceptible to cue induced relapse. Therefore identifying the neural
substrates involved in processing the valence of internal and external stimuli may provide
further insight into cocaine dependence and provide more effective therapeutic strategies
aimed at preventing relapse.
Corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) is a pharmacological activator of the hypothalamic
pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, and has been implicated in stress induced drug relapse.
Corticotropin releasing hormone receptors are located at extrahypothalamic brain nuclei that
have been implicated in determining the significance of both internal (somatic) and external
(environmental) stimuli. The primary directive of this pilot project is to utilize functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify possible brain nuclei associated with with
stress induced drug craving in cocaine dependent females.