Envelhecimento acelerado no transtorno por uso de cocaína : uma análise de espessura cortical cerebral

Abstract

It has been suggested that Substance Use Disorders could lead to accelerated biological aging, but only a few neuroimaging studies have investigated this hypothesis so far. In this crosssectional study, structural neuroimaging was performed to measure Cortical Thickness (CT) in tricenarian adults with Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD, n1 = 30) and their age-paired controls (YC, n1 = 30), and compare it with octogenarian elder controls (EC, n1 = 20). We found that CT in the right fusiform gyrus was similar between CUD and EC, thinner than the expected values of YC. We also found that regarding CT of the right Inferior Temporal gyrus and right Parietal cortex, the CUD group exhibited parameters that fell in between EC and YC groups. Finally, CT of the left Inferior Temporal gyrus, right Superior Temporal gyrus, right Precentral gyrus, and right pars triangularis bordering with orbitofrontal gyrus were reduced in CUD when contrasted with YC, but those areas were unrelated to CT of EC. Despite the 50 years age gap between our age groups, CT of tricenarian cocaine users assembles features of an octogenarian brain, reinforcing the accelerated aging hypothesis in CUD.