Journal
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
Volume 106, Issue -, Pages 141-164Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.09.010
Keywords
Systematic review; Dopamine system; Opioid system; Mu opioid receptor; Alcohol addiction; Abstinence; Relapse; Meta-analysis; Neuroadaptation; Striatum; Nucleus accumbens; Postmortem brain; Human imaging; Positron emission tomography (PET); Receptor autoradiography; Animal models; Reward
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Funding
- Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) [FZ: 01ZX1503, FKZ: 01ZX1311A]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG Center Grant) [SFB1134]
- European Union's Horizon 2020 Program [668863-SyBil-AA]
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A major hypothesis in the addiction field suggests deficits in dopamine signaling during abstinence as a driving mechanism for the relapsing course of the disorder. Paradoxically, blockade of mu-opioid receptors (MORs) intended to suppress dopamine release and alcohol reward is a widely used treatment for preventing relapse in alcohol use disorder (AUD). To elucidate this apparent discrepancy, we systematically survey the literature on experimental studies in AUD subjects and animal models, which assessed striatal dopamine levels and D1, D2-like receptor, dopamine transporter and MOR via positron emission tomography (PET) and ex vivo receptor binding assays. The reported evidence indicates a changing dopaminergic signaling over time, which is associated with concomitant alterations in MOR, thus suggesting a highly dynamic regulation of the reward system during abstinence. Such a view can reconcile the various evidences from in vivo and postmortem studies, but makes developing an effective pharmacological intervention that specifically targets either dopamine receptors or the transporter system a daunting task.
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