TY - JOUR
T1 - Fronto-temporal cortical atrophy in ‘nyaope’ combination heroin and cannabis use disorder
AU - Ndlovu, Nhanisi A.
AU - Morgan, Nirvana
AU - Malapile, Stella
AU - Subramaney, Ugasvaree
AU - Daniels, William
AU - Naidoo, Jaishree
AU - van den Heuvel, Martijn P.
AU - Calvey, Tanya
N1 - Funding Information: This project was funded by grants from the University of the Witwatersrand , the South African Medical Research Council and the National Research Foundation ( 118174 and 118508 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier B.V. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/4/1
Y1 - 2021/4/1
N2 - Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the top three regions with the highest rates of opioid-related premature mortality. Nyaope is the street name for what is believed to be a drug cocktail in South Africa although recent research suggests that it is predominantly heroin. Nyaope powder is most commonly smoked together with cannabis, a drug-use pattern unique to the region. Due to the increasing burden of this drug in low-income communities and the absence of human structural neuroimaging data of combination heroin and cannabis use disorder, we initiated an important cohort study in order to identify neuroanatomical sequelae. Twenty-eight male nyaope users and thirty healthy, matched controls were recruited from drug rehabilitation centers and the community, respectively. T1-weighted MRI images were obtained using a 3 T General Electric Discovery and cortical thickness was examined and compared. Nyaope users displayed extensive grey matter atrophy in the right hemispheric medial orbitofrontal, rostral middle frontal, superior temporal, superior frontal, and supramarginal gyri (two-sided t-test, p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). Our findings indicate cortical abnormality in nyaope users in regions involved in impulse control, decision making, social- and self-perception, and working memory. Importantly, affected brain regions show large overlap with the pattern of cortical abnormalities shown in heroin use disorder.
AB - Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the top three regions with the highest rates of opioid-related premature mortality. Nyaope is the street name for what is believed to be a drug cocktail in South Africa although recent research suggests that it is predominantly heroin. Nyaope powder is most commonly smoked together with cannabis, a drug-use pattern unique to the region. Due to the increasing burden of this drug in low-income communities and the absence of human structural neuroimaging data of combination heroin and cannabis use disorder, we initiated an important cohort study in order to identify neuroanatomical sequelae. Twenty-eight male nyaope users and thirty healthy, matched controls were recruited from drug rehabilitation centers and the community, respectively. T1-weighted MRI images were obtained using a 3 T General Electric Discovery and cortical thickness was examined and compared. Nyaope users displayed extensive grey matter atrophy in the right hemispheric medial orbitofrontal, rostral middle frontal, superior temporal, superior frontal, and supramarginal gyri (two-sided t-test, p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). Our findings indicate cortical abnormality in nyaope users in regions involved in impulse control, decision making, social- and self-perception, and working memory. Importantly, affected brain regions show large overlap with the pattern of cortical abnormalities shown in heroin use disorder.
KW - Cannabis
KW - Functional lateralization
KW - Neuroanatomy
KW - Neuropsychiatry
KW - Opioids
KW - Psychopharmacology
KW - Substance use disorders
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108630
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108630
M3 - Article
C2 - 33667779
SN - 0376-8716
VL - 221
SP - 1
EP - 6
JO - Drug and alcohol dependence
JF - Drug and alcohol dependence
M1 - 108630
ER -