Mikayla Stein

BACKGROUND: Previous literature suggests that comorbidity of anxiety in alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with treatment outcome. There is also evidence of overlapping neural dysregulations underlying both disorders. We hypothesized that among those with AUD, amygdala network alterations will be associated with (i) anxiety severity and (ii) length of abstinence. METHODS: We collected eyes-closed resting state fMRI data from 42 individuals with AUD (Age: M=43.14, SD=9.744; Gender: 16 females) recruited from an addiction treatment program at ~2 weeks of abstinence. Rs-fMRI data were preprocessed/denoised using the Human Connectome Project pre-processing pipeline, including motion correction, dewarping, MNI registration and denoising. Anxiety severity was measured with State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S). Length of abstinence was recorded with the Timeline Follow-Back questionnaire. We conducted Pearson’s correlations between amygdala resting state functional connectivity (rsFC), STAI-S scores and days of abstinence during a 4-month follow-up period. RESULTS: Significant negative correlations were found between STAI-S trait anxiety scores and rsFC between (i) left amygdala and both left premotor cortex and left inferior parietal cortex and (ii) right amygdala and both lateral temporal cortex and inferior and anterior frontal cortex. Finally, rsFC between right amygdala and anterior frontal cortex could predict subsequent abstinence length during the 4-month follow-up period. DISCUSSION: Findings in this preliminary study suggest that there are associations between amygdala functional organization, anxiety severity and treatment outcome. If findings are confirmed in larger-scale studies, identified neural dysregulations underlying anxiety severity are promising targets for future interventions designed to reduce relapse.