Correlations between the attentional bias and relapse after abstinence in male alcohol dependent patients

Abstract

Objective To explore the attentional biases to word-related cues in alcohol dependent (AD) patients and the correlations between the attentional bias and relapse after abstinence. Methods A total of 46 AD patients were compared with matched 44 health controls(HC) completed the Chinese Emotional Stroop Task that assessed the attentional bias at the beginning of the treatment. Time to relapse was assessed every months during detoxification. The correlations between the attentional bias and relapse were by Pearson correlation analysis, Logistic regression analysis on risk factors of relapsed after abstinence. Results The reaction time of neutral, negative and alcohol-related words in Chinese Emotional Stroop Task of AD group ((1 411±299), (1 329±318),(1 445±333) ms, respectively) was worse than that of HC group ((869±278), (825±213), (840±222) ms, respectively) , the difference was statistically significant (t=8.890, 8.800, 0.019, all P<0.01). The error number of the neutral and negative-words of AD group((3.67±2.30), (3.74±2.31) times) was worse than that of HC group((2.25±2.11), (2.02±1.80) times, t=3.053, 3.918, both P< 0.01). Time to relapse in AD patients were positively correlated to reaction time and error number of negative-related words, and error number of alcohol-related words (r=0.354,P=0.016; r=0.442,P=0.004; r= 0.493, P=0.000). Through multiple regression analysis, the error number of the alcohol-related was very import factor. Conclusion The results suggest that patients with alcohol dependence have attentional bias in alcohol-related words as measured by the Chinese Emotional Stroop Task, and alcohol attentional bias could be as a predictor of alcohol abusers' treatment outcome. Key words: Alcohol-related disorders; Stroop test; Treatment outcome; Attentional bias