Certain regions of the brain show changes during the early stages after quitting drinking that may contribute to increased anxiety and relapse rates in people attempting recovery from alcohol use disorder, according to a study published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research . The study further found that an individual's sex and severity of their anxiety play a significant role in the brain 's response during early abstinence from alcohol use, with the brains of men and women responding differently. These findings highlight the need for a greater understanding of the neural mechanisms affected by alcohol use and abstinence to better support people trying to quit drinking.
Nearly half of people with alcohol use disorder who try to quit drinking typically relapse in the first year, which is thought to be associated with increased anxiety often experienced during the early stages of abstinence. The study sought to examine changes in activation in different brain regions as well as functional connectivity in a network of brain regions associated with anxiety responses called the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Forty people aged 21 to 40 years old participated in the study, half of whom were people with alcohol use disorder who had stopped drinking for one to six months prior to the study (the early abstinent group).
The other 20 participants made up the healthy control group. Researchers acquired functional MRI data from participants while they completed an 'u.