Effect of ablating nucleus accumbens with stereotactic surgery on opioid addicts¬ð personalities

    HE Fei, HUANG Dongª²Mei, LI Liª²Hong, FU Yuª²Hong, WANG Xueª²Lian

    Department of Social Psychology, College of Philosophy and Sociology, Jilin University, Changchun 130012£¬ China, Institute of Functional Encephalopathy Research, Chinese PLA Center for Microneurosurgery, Neurosurgical Department, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710038£¬ China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the influences of ablating the nucleus accumbens with stereotactic surgery on 75 opioid addicts¬ð personalities 10 d later. METHODS: The 75 patients were evaluated before and after operation with Cattell¬ðs Sixteen Personality Factor Test (16PF) and a selfª²designed questionnaire. RESULTS: Most of personality factors did not change except 3 factors: suspicion (P<0.05), independence (P<0.05) and selfª²control (P<0.01) which had significant differences after operation. Few personalities of few patients changed during 3 to 6 months after operation. CONCLUSION: There is an evident correlation between some subregions or neural pathways in nucleus accumbens and personalities. This operation hasn¬ðt significant influences on the whole personalities of patients of whom the specific parts of nucleus accumbens have been damaged. ......