The health risk associated with tobacco use in people with severe mental illness is much higher than the general population. Among them, patients with schizophrenia are the population with perhaps the highest risk for nicotine addition. Current conceptualizations of the possible etiologies of the severe schizophrenia-smoking comorbidity include self-medication for neurocognition deficits, overcoming antipsychotic medication side effects, and shared nicotinic molecular pathways. However, the underlying brain circuitry for the comorbidity is unknown. Identifying brain comorbidity circuitry is critical for developing valid biomarkers for clinical therapeutic development, individualizing treatment selection and outcome prediction. Recent data suggest that the cingulate-ventral striatum circuit appears to be one of the key pathways associated with nicotine addiction. These same areas are also among the regions most commonly implicated in schizophrenia, and additional preliminary studies suggest that the same circuit is impaired in schizophrenia. Therefore, we hypothesize that abnormal cingulate-ventral striatum circuit is a key path for schizophrenia/nicotine addiction comorbidity. We propose to test the hypotheses that the cingulate-ventral striatum circuit is abnormal in nicotine addiction and in schizophrenia, and that schizophrenia pathology disrupts this circuit and predisposes patients to more severe nicotine addiction, leading to the severe nicotine addiction/schizophrenia comorbidity. We will also examine the clinical validities of the circuit in prediction of long-term smoking behavioral change, in genetics, and in its relationships to putative addiction mechanisms. Identifying the key brain circuits associated with smoking in this high risk population will provide concrete biomarkers for new therapeutic development, and ultimately reducing the smoking related health burden in schizophrenia patients. In addition, as public health efforts have reduced smoking, those who still smoke in the population may be more dependent and more treatment-resistant. An effort targeting the population most addicted to smoking may also yield novel perspectives to treat nicotine addiction in the general population.

Public Health Relevance

People with schizophrenia have high rate of smoking, which is often resistant to available treatment. This study aims to identify the brain circuit responsible for the smoking comorbidity in these patients, which should lead to better treatment strategy for reducing smoking and smoking related health burden in schizophrenia patients and perhaps also in other treatment-resistant smokers in the general population.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DA027680-04
Application #
8489266
Study Section
Neural Basis of Psychopathology, Addictions and Sleep Disorders Study Section (NPAS)
Program Officer
Lin, Yu
Project Start
2010-09-30
Project End
2015-07-31
Budget Start
2013-08-01
Budget End
2014-07-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$459,401
Indirect Cost
$150,265
Name
University of Maryland Baltimore
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
188435911
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21201
Savransky, Anya; Chiappelli, Joshua; Fisseha, Feven et al. (2018) Elevated allostatic load early in the course of schizophrenia. Transl Psychiatry 8:246
Adhikari, Bhim M; Jahanshad, Neda; Shukla, Dinesh et al. (2018) A resting state fMRI analysis pipeline for pooling inference across diverse cohorts: an ENIGMA rs-fMRI protocol. Brain Imaging Behav :
Adhikari, Bhim M; Jahanshad, Neda; Shukla, Dinesh et al. (2018) Heritability estimates on resting state fMRI data using ENIGMA analysis pipeline. Pac Symp Biocomput 23:307-318
Chiappelli, Joshua; Notarangelo, Francesca M; Pocivavsek, Ana et al. (2018) Influence of plasma cytokines on kynurenine and kynurenic acid in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology 43:1675-1680
Adhikari, Bhim M; Jahanshad, Neda; Shukla, Dinesh et al. (2018) Comparison of heritability estimates on resting state fMRI connectivity phenotypes using the ENIGMA analysis pipeline. Hum Brain Mapp 39:4893-4902
van Erp, Theo G M; Walton, Esther; Hibar, Derrek P et al. (2018) Cortical Brain Abnormalities in 4474 Individuals With Schizophrenia and 5098 Control Subjects via the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics Through Meta Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium. Biol Psychiatry 84:644-654
Puvvada, Krishna C; Summerfelt, Ann; Du, Xiaoming et al. (2018) Delta Vs Gamma Auditory Steady State Synchrony in Schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 44:378-387
Chiappelli, Joshua; Chen, Shuo; Hackman, Ann et al. (2018) Evidence for differential opioid use disorder in schizophrenia in an addiction treatment population. Schizophr Res 194:26-31
Du, Xiaoming; Kochunov, Peter; Summerfelt, Ann et al. (2017) The role of white matter microstructure in inhibitory deficits in patients with schizophrenia. Brain Stimul 10:283-290
Chiappelli, Joshua; Kochunov, Peter; Savransky, Anya et al. (2017) Allostatic load and reduced cortical thickness in schizophrenia. Psychoneuroendocrinology 77:105-111

Showing the most recent 10 out of 71 publications