Effect of craving induction on inhibitory control in opiate dependence

Abstract

Current neurobiological models of addiction posit that drug seeking is much more likely to occur during emotionally charged states (such as craving), as deficits in inhibitory control become more pronounced during heightened motivational states. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cue-induced craving states on attention and inhibitory control within addicted individuals. We tested the performance of 39 opiate-dependent individuals on cognitive measures of attention (Digit Span, Digit Symbol, and Telephone Search) and inhibitory control (Counting Stroop and Go-No-Go) both before and after exposure to an autobiographical craving script. A non-drug using healthy control group (n = 19) performed the same tasks before and after listening to a relaxation tape. Following craving induction, opiate-dependent individuals demonstrated improved performance on tests of processing speed and attentional span (consistent with the practice effect observed in controls) and increased their response errors on the Stroop task (in contrast to controls), while selective attention was unaffected. Individual differences in compulsivity mediated the association between craving and Stroop performance, such that low-compulsive (but not high-compulsive) individuals committed more response errors after craving induction. These findings challenge the notion of cue-induced craving as a primary trigger of disrupted cognition and drug-seeking behavior in addicted individuals, and raise the need to explore individual differences in compulsivity when addressing the links between craving and loss of control within research and clinical settings.