Abstract
Background
The hypothesis that dopamine plays an important role in the pathophysiology of pathological
gambling is pervasive. However, there is little to no direct evidence for a categorical
difference between pathological gamblers and healthy control subjects in terms of
dopamine transmission in a drug-free state. Here we provide evidence for this hypothesis
by comparing dopamine synthesis capacity in the dorsal and ventral parts of the striatum
in 13 pathological gamblers and 15 healthy control subjects.
Methods
This was achieved using [18F]fluoro-levo-dihydroxyphenylalanine dynamic positron emission tomography scans and
striatal regions of interest that were hand-drawn based on visual inspection of individual
structural magnetic resonance imaging scans.
Results
Our results show that dopamine synthesis capacity was increased in pathological gamblers
compared with healthy control subjects. Dopamine synthesis was 16% higher in the caudate
body, 17% higher in the dorsal putamen, and 17% higher in the ventral striatum in
pathological gamblers compared with control subjects. Moreover, dopamine synthesis
capacity in the dorsal putamen and caudate head was positively correlated with gambling
distortions in pathological gamblers.
Conclusions
Taken together, these results provide empirical evidence for increased striatal dopamine
synthesis in pathological gambling.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 16, 2017
Accepted:
June 1,
2017
Received in revised form:
May 15,
2017
Received:
January 20,
2017
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Society of Biological Psychiatry.
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Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Searching for Replicable Dopamine-Related Findings in Gambling DisorderBiological PsychiatryVol. 83Issue 12
- Previewvan Holst et al. (1) used [18F]flouro-levo-diphenylalanine ([18F]DOPA) positron emission tomography (PET) to study individuals with and without pathological gambling (PG). They report that the PG group, as compared with the healthy control (HC) group, demonstrated higher dopamine synthesis capacity in three striatal regions (the caudate body, dorsal putamen, and ventral striatum) and that dopamine synthesis capacity in two striatal regions (the caudate head and dorsal putamen) correlated with gambling-related distortions in the PG group.
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