Investigating Sex-Specific Characteristics of Nicotine Addiction Using Metabolic and Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging

This study sought to examine the sex-specific influence of nicotine addiction on gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) and the white matter (WM) microstructure. Sixty healthy subjects (smokers/non-smokers) underwent structural and metabolic magnetic resonance imaging scans. Results showed alterations in WM integrity (measured as changes in fractional anisotropy [FA] and GABA in smokers versus non-smokers and females versus males. No overall significant smoking and sex-specific interactions were observed in this study. However, on comparing female smokers with female non-smokers, significantly higher GABA and FA values were observed in female smokers. However, GABA and FA values did not differ significantly when male smokers were compared against male non-smokers. Our results provide a further rationale to investigate the impact of nicotine on central GABAergic function and WM integrity, in particular due to the potential risk for females to experience depressive/anxiety symptoms during smoking cessation.Eur Addict Res 2018;24:267 –277
Source: European Addiction Research - Category: Addiction Source Type: research