Anderson Mon1, Timothy C. Durazzo1,
1Department of Radiology
& Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San
Francisco, CA, United States; 2Psychology, the MIND Institute,
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United States
In this report, we assessed the influence of BDNF, DRD2 and COMT genotype on the recovery of brain lobar tissue volumes in abstinent alcohol dependent individuals. We observed that only BDNF facilitates brain tissue recovery of the frontal lobe in short-term abstinent alcohol dependent individuals. In particular, the valine homozygous polymorphism is associated with greater tissue recovery than BDNF heterozygocity. This finding suggests that the amount of time needed by an individual to fully recover from the effects of chronic alcoholism is partly dependent on the individuals genetic composition