Neuroimaging of substance abuse and psychosis
Despite many targeted studies over the last decade, little is understood about the connection between substance abuse and the onset of psychosis in adolescence.
More information about the brain mechanisms underlying the onset of drug abuse-induced psychosis could lead to the development of treatments to neutralise or reduce any psychosis causing effects of such drug abuse, and shed light on the neuronal functions whose disturbances result in disorganised thinking, attention deficits and the memory and language problems that characterise psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
The project uses in vitro techniques such as autoradiography and in situ hybridisation, as well as in vivo molecular imaging such as micro SPECT/PET to investigate the effects of long term substance abuse in the brain of adolescent and adult rats. Initially ANSTO will use the in vitro methodologies to identify a number of cellular elements whose expression/concentration is modified after chronic exposure to drugs of abuse, with focus on cannabinoids. In a follow-up study ANSTO will perform in vivo SPECT/PET micro imaging in order to image and follow the chronic effects of drugs on the cellular elements identified above.
Future studies will investigate the effects of cannabinoids in animal models of psychosis, such as in animals made vulnerable to develop psychotic-like behaviour during adolescence due to genetic or environmental manipulations.