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Differences in regional blood volume during a 28-day period of abstinence in chronic cannabis smokers.

Sneider JT, Pope HG, Silveri MM, Simpson NS, Gruber SA, Yurgelun-Todd DA

Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brain Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02478, United States. jtsneider@mclean.harvard.edu

Cerebral blood volume (CBV) studies have provided important insight into the effects of illicit substances such as cannabis. The present study examined changes in regional blood volume in the frontal and temporal lobe, and the cerebellum during 28 days of supervised abstinence from cannabis. Dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI (DSCMRI) data were collected on 15 current, long-term cannabis users between 6 and 36 h after the subjects' last reported cannabis use (Day 0), and again after 7 and 28 days of abstinence. Resting state CBV images were also acquired on 17 healthy comparison subjects. The present findings demonstrate that at Day 7, cannabis users continued to display increased blood volumes in the right frontal region, the left and right temporal regions, and the cerebellum. However, after 28 days of abstinence, only the left temporal area and cerebellum showed significantly increased CBV values in cannabis users. These findings suggest that while CBV levels begin to normalize with continued abstinence from cannabis, specifically in frontal areas, other temporal and cerebellar brain regions show slower CBV decreases.

Published 30 June 2008 in Eur Neuropsychopharmacol, 18(8): 612-9.
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