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Abstract
Objective: To investigate the subjective craving and brain response to heroin-related cues in former heroin addicts on long-term methadone maintenance treatment. Methods: Fourteen participants completed an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging task including heroin-related and nonheroin-related (neutral) cues. Craving self-reports were collected before and after the task. Results: Although no significant craving changes were associated with the task, blood oxygen-level dependence intensity was significantly greater during exposure to heroin-related cues, compared to neutral cues in brain areas studied. Conclusions and Scientific Significance: The results indicate that the learned brain response of former heroin addicts to drug-related stimuli may persist despite long-term methadone maintenance treatment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported in part by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30870685/C100701) and the Development Project of Science and Technology of Shaanxi Province (2009K01-65, 2010K16-03-02).
Declaration of Interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.