Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with brain-wide gray matter (GM) reduction, but the frontocerebellar circuit seems specifically affected by chronic alcohol consumption. T1 weighted MRI data from 38 AUD patients at one month of sobriety and three months later and from 25 controls were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and a graph theory approach (GTA). We investigated the degree to which the frontocerebellar circuit’s integration within the brain’s GM network architecture was altered by AUD-related GM volume loss. The VBM analyses did not reveal significant GM volume differences between relapsers and abstainers at either timepoint, but future relapsers at both timepoints had significantly less GM than controls in the frontocerebellar circuit. Abstainers, who at baseline also showed the most pronounced GM loss in the thalamus, showed a significant circuit-wide GM increase with inter-scan abstinence. The post-hoc GTAs revealed a persistent diffuse global atrophy in both AUD groups at follow-up relative to controls and different recovery patterns in the two AUD groups. Our findings suggest that future relapsers do not just present with a more severe expression of the same AUD consequences than abstainers, but that AUD affects the frontocerebellar circuit differently in relapsers and abstainers.

酒精使用障碍 (AUD) 与全脑灰质 (GM) 减少有关，但前小脑回路似乎特别受长期饮酒的影响。使用基于体素的形态计量学 (VBM) 和图论方法 (GTA) 分析了 38 名 AUD 患者在清醒一个月和三个月后以及来自 25 名对照的 T1 加权 MRI 数据。我们调查了前小脑回路在大脑 GM 网络架构中的整合在多大程度上被 AUD 相关的 GM 体积损失所改变。VBM 分析未显示复发者和戒酒者在任一时间点的 GM 体积差异显着，但未来复发者在两个时间点的 GM 明显低于前小脑回路中的对照组。禁酒者在基线时也表现出丘脑中最明显的 GM 损失，显示出显着的全电路 GM 增加与扫描间禁欲。事后 GTA 揭示了两个 AUD 组在随访中相对于对照组和两个 AUD 组中不同的恢复模式的持续性弥漫性全局萎缩。我们的研究结果表明，未来的复发者不仅表现出比戒酒者更严重的 AUD 后果，而且 AUD 在复发者和戒酒者中对前小脑回路的影响不同。