Implication of Ovarian Hormones in the Neural Correlates of Stress Induced Drug Craving

The study is investigating the impact of progesterone and estrogen on brain areas that are involved with stress response and drug craving. The study will involve 40 women who will participate in the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST) while undergoing fMRI scanning procedures. Half of the women will complete the procedures during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle; the other half will complete procedures during the follicular phase. Subjective and physiological measures (cortisol levels) will be used to measure stress and craving response. Hypothesis 1A is that all women will exhibit increased craving, stress response, salivary cortisol and BNST and limbic nuclei activation in response to the MIST task. Hypothesis 1B is that these increased responses will be higher for women in the luteal phase than for women in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle.