Association of Frontal and Posterior Cortical Gray Matter Volume With Time to Alcohol Relapse: A Prospective Study

Objective:Alcoholism is associated with gray matter volume deficits in frontal and other brain regions. Whether persistent brain volume deficits in abstinence are predictive of subsequent time to alcohol relapse has not been established. The authors measured gray matter volumes in healthy volunteers and in a sample of treatment-engaged, alcohol-dependent patients after 1 month of abstinence and assessed whether smaller frontal gray matter volume was predictive of subsequent alcohol relapse outcomes. Method:Forty-five abstinent alcohol-dependent patients in treatment and 50 healthy comparison subjects were scanned once using high-resolution (T1-weighted) structural MRI, and voxel-based morphometry was used to assess regional brain volume differences between the groups. A prospective study design was used to assess alcohol relapse in the alcohol-dependent group for 90 days after discharge from 6 weeks of inpatient treatment. Results:Significantly smaller gray matter volume in alcohol-dependent patients rela...