Whereas both Ersche papers (Ersche et al., 2011; Ersche et al., 2012) showed larger subcortical GM volumes in currently using PSUD individuals (caudate, lenticular nuclei, amygdala and cerebellum, some of which may be premorbid (Ersche et al., 2012)), our abstinent PSU patients had smaller lenticular and thalamic GM as well as normal caudate, cerebellar and brainstem volumes. As the authors speculate that some of these increases may reflect a compensatory response to reduced dopamine neurotransmission, this may have normalized in our abstinent PSU sample.
