Brain spect does open the black box in drug abusers: drugs of abuse diminish the cerebral blood flow

ABSTRACT

This work aimed to study abnormalities in the regional cerebral blood flow insingle-and combined-drug abusers and assess the beneficial effect of brainsingle photon emission computed tomography [SPECT] in the field of drug abuse. Consequently, this work was conducted on 40 male subjects classified amongfour groups Controls [group I], ethanol abusers [group II], heroin abusers[group III] and ethanol + heroin abusers [group IV]. All subjects includedhad a negative history of major physical and mental disorders. Moreover, allof them were subjected to brain computed tomography [CT] to reveal anystructural abnormalities. Brain SPECT was performed to all subjects to detectany abnormalities in the percentage regional cerebral perfusion which mayresult from drug abuse. It was concluded that there was a significantdecrease in global and regional CBF in ethanol and/or heroin abusers, it couldbe detected by brain SPECT even when neurological examination andneuroanatomical imaging such as CT were normal. The study recommended thatbrain SPECT could be done side by side with CT neuroimaging to add functionaland structural data and hence proper evaluation and assessment of treatmentstrategies