NEUROCHEMICAL ALTERATIONS IN ASYMPTOMATIC ABSTINENT COCAINE USERS - APROTON MAGNETIC-RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY STUDY

Cocaine can cause a variety of neuropsychiatric and neurobehavioral co mplications; however, it is uncertain whether cocaine causes persisten t cerebral structural and neurochemical abnormalities in asymptomatic users. We studied 52 African-American men (26 human immunodeficiency v irus-negative asymptomatic heavy cocaine users and 26 normal subjects) . Ventricle-to-brain ratio (VBR) and white matter lesions (WML) were q uantified on magnetic resonance imaging. N-acetyl-containing compounds (NA), total creatine, choline-containing compounds myo-inositol, and glutamate+glutamine were measured with in vivo proton magnetic resonan ce spectroscopy, VBR and WML were not significantly different in the c ocaine users compared to the normal controls, Elevated creatine (+ 7%; p = .05) and myo-inositol (+ 18%; p = .01) in the white matter were a ssociated with cocaine we, NA, primarily a measure of N-acetyl asparta te and neuronal content, was normal. Normal NA suggests no neuronal lo ss or damage in the brain regions examined in these cocaine users, The refore, we conclude that neurochemical abnormalities observed might re sult from alterations in nonneuronal brain tissue. (C) 1997 Society of Biological Psychiatry.