Modulation of brain structure by catechol-O-methyltransferase Val 158Met polymorphism in chronic cannabis users

A Batalla; C Soriano-Mas; M Lõpez-Solà; M Torrens; JA Crippa; S Bhattacharyya; L Blanco-Hinojo; AB Fagundo; BJ Harrison; S Nogué; R De La Torre; M Farré; J Pujol; R Martín-Santos

Journal article

Modulation of brain structure by catechol-O-methyltransferase Val 158Met polymorphism in chronic cannabis users

A Batalla, C Soriano-Mas, M Lõpez-Solà, M Torrens, JA Crippa, S Bhattacharyya, L Blanco-Hinojo, AB Fagundo, BJ Harrison, S Nogué, R De La Torre, M Farré, J Pujol, R Martín-Santos

Addiction Biology | WILEY | Published : 2014

DOI: 10.1111/adb.12027

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have shown that chronic consumption of cannabis may result in alterations in brain morphology. Recent work focusing on the relationship between brain structure and the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene polymorphism suggests that functional COMT variants may affect brain volume in healthy individuals and in schizophrenia patients. We measured the influence of COMT genotype on the volume of four key regions: the prefrontal cortex, neostriatum (caudate-putamen), anterior cingulate cortex and hippocampus-amygdala complex, in chronic early-onset cannabis users and healthy control subjects. We selected 29 chronic cannabis users who began using cannabis before 16 years o..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Ben Harrison Author

Related Projects (1)

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Grants

Awarded by Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This paper has been partially supported by grants: Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, PNSD: PI101/2006 and PNSD: PI041731/2011 (R. M-S.), PNSD: SOC/3386/2004 (M. F.), Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria, ISCIII-FEDER, RTA:RD06/0001/1009 (M. T.). DIUE de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2009 SGR 718 (R. D. T., M. F.) and SGR 1435 (R.M.-S., J.A.C.); SGR 2009/719 (R. D. T., M. F.); C. S-M. is funded by a Miguel Servet contract from the Carlos III Health Institute (CP10/00604). B.J.H. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Clinical Career Development Award (I. D. 628509). J.A.C receives a CNPq (Brazil) productivity award (IC). None of the grants had further role in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript and decision to submit it for publication. The authors disclose no competing financial interests.