Women’s Brains Hit Hardest by Long-term Stimulant Abuse

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Women’s Brains Hit Hardest by Long-term Stimulant Abuse

Long-term abuse of stimulant drugs is associated with significantly different effects on gray matter volumes (GMVs) in men and women and are correlated with behavioral differences, new research shows.


The study, which included men and women who had been abstinent from stimulants for longer than a year, indicated that women previously dependent on the drugs, including cocaine and amphetamine, had significant GMV reductions compared with control persons across numerous brain regions.


“Vast neuroanatomic changes observed in abstinent patients with stimulant dependence were present in women but not in men.”


“In particular, structures involved in reward, learning, executive control, and affective processing pathways were affected: the insula, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, medial frontal gyrus, and nucleus accumbens,” the investigators write.


“These changes correlated with drug use and behavioral measures and may help to explain differences in the clinical course of stimulant dependence in women compared with that in men,” they add.


The study was published online July 14 in Radiology.

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