George Russell King1, Dan Alicata2, Christine Cloak1, Thomas Ernst1, Irene Chin1, Linda Chang1
1Medicine, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI, USA; 2Psychiatry, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI, USA
The present study evaluates changes in cortical and subcortical brain volumes in female adolescent METH users, which represent an understudied population. Consistent with adult METH users, adolescents have enlarged striatal and limbic regions. In contrast to adults, however, adolescents show reduced cerebral gray matter volumes, with no alteration in cortical white matter. The reductions in subcortical volumes might have contributed to their poorer psychomotor performance, since we observed a correlation between putamen volume and the digit symbol task. Further analyses of the data will include a larger sample size, and comparing male and female METH users.