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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2014, 16, 3 (pages: 75 - 86)

Limbic system irritability and drug dreams in heroin-addicted patients

Colace C., Belsanti S., and Antermite A.

Summary: Background. Drug dreams, that is, the dreams of drug-addicted patients with contents related to their craving for the drugs they are addicted to, have been investigated in their clinical and prognostic significance, as well as in their implications from the standpoint of general dream research and theory. Recent progress in neurobiology of drug addiction and drug craving, affective neuroscience, and neuropsychology of dreaming, provide a background for investigating the possible neurobiological correlates of these dreams, that may help to understand the intimate link between them and drug craving. Aim. This paper investigates on drug dreams and limbic system activity in drug addicted patients as measured by means of the Limbic System Check List-33 (LSCL). Methods. 53 heroin -addicted subjects were interviewed about their drug dreams (Drug Dreams Questionnaire). Results. The results show that drug-addicted patients reported a LSCL mean score indicating limbic system irritability. Furthermore, patients who have drug dreams reported a higher statistically significant LSCL mean score compared to non-dreamer patients. Results are also consistent with previous studies regarding the phenomenological picture of drug dreams and their clinical applications. Discussion and conclusion. We assume that in the patients who reported drug dreams, the higher LSCL scores may be due to the presence of a stronger drug craving, of which the higher mesolimbic-mesocortical dopamine tone is the neurobiological correlate. The association between the greater limbic DA tone and the occurrence of drug dreams appears consistent with the results of clinico-anatomical studies of dreaming on the crucial role of the mesolimbic-mesocortical dopamine system in the instigation of dream.