Yohimbine-Induced Amygdala Activation in Pathological Gamblers: A Pilot Study
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RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: There is evidence that drug addiction is associated with increased physiological and psychological responses to stress. In this pilot functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we assessed whether a prototype behavioral addiction, pathological gambling (PG), is likewise associated with an enhanced response to stress. METHODS: We induced stress by injecting yohimbine (0.2-0.3 mg/kg, IV), an alpha-2 adrenoceptor antagonist that elicits stress-like physiological and psychological effects in humans and in laboratory animals, to four subjects with PG and to five non-gamblers mentally healthy control subjects. Their fMRI brain responses were assessed along with subjective stress and gambling urges ratings. RESULTS: Voxelwise analyses of data sets from individual subjects, utilizing generalized linear model approach, revealed significant left amygdala activation in response to yohimbine across all PG subjects. This amygdala effect was not observed in the five control individuals. Yohimbine elicited subjective stress ratings in both groups with greater (albeit not statically significantly) average response in the PG subjects. On the other hand, yohimbine did not induce urges to gamble. CONCLUSIONS: The present data support the hypothesis of brain sensitization to pharmacologically-induced stress in PG.
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In pathological gamblers, yohimbine produced greater reactivity in the left amygdala and tended to elicit greater subjective stress ratings than in healthy controls.
“They found that in pathological gamblers, yohimbine produced greater reactivity in the left amygdala and tended to elicit greater subjective stress ratings than in healthy controls (Elman et al., 2012).”
From Cued for Risk: Evidence for an Incentive Sensitization Framework to Explain the Interplay between Stress and Anxiety, Substance Abuse, and Reward Uncertainty in Disordered Gambling Behavior (2019) · cites this paper as Elman et al., 2012
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References 79 · Cited by 31
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- [2]Shaffer HJ 1997 Pathological and problem gamblers in the United States. Pathological Gambling: A Critical Review Washington, DC National Academy Press 67, 104
- [25]Bremner JD Krystal JH Southwick SM Charney DS 1996 Noradrenergic mechanisms in stress and anxiety: II.clinical studies. Synapse 23 39 51 8723134
- Authors
- Elman, I., Becerra, L., Tschibelu, E., Yamamoto, R., George, E., & Borsook, D.
- Affiliations
- Cambridge Health Alliance (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Elman, Igor
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2012-02-02
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- e31118
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3271103
- OpenAlex
- W1995043372
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 79
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 3.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA017959, DA 017959)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Gambling Behavior and Treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Keywords
- gambling addiction, yohimbine, amygdala activation, stress response, behavioral addiction, alpha2-adrenoceptor antagonists, gambling urges, subjective stress
- MeSH terms
- Amygdala, Brain Mapping, Gambling, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Pilot Projects, Stress, Physiological, Yohimbine, Case-Control Studies, Behavior, Addictive, Adrenergic alpha-2 Receptor Antagonists
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