Alcohol-related Cues Research Articles

Effects of Sexual Arousal and Alcohol Cues on Acute Motivation for Alcohol.

Reward-related stimuli can induce motivation to obtain rewards both within and across domains. We tested within- and cross-domain effects of environmental context (mock bar vs. laboratory) and sexually arousing stimuli (pornography vs. nature film) on acute motivation for alcohol as measured by a state-based alcohol purchase task in 109 male and female college students. Our results showed significant effects of both sexual arousal and environmental context on acute motivation for alcohol. A limited subsample analysis (N = 84) revealed significant effects of both sexual arousal and environmental context conditions on elasticity. Consistent with hypotheses, the presence of either sex- or alcohol-related cues increased acute motivation for alcohol and decreased sensitivity to costs of drinking. Furthermore, there was a significant video × laboratory condition interaction in the elasticity analysis. Our findings suggest that both sexually arousing stimuli and incidental environmental alcohol cues may significantly increase the effort one will expend to consume alcohol and thus the potential for risky drinking behavior. We believe this is the first experiment to use demand curves to present evidence of cross-domain effects of sexually arousing stimuli on acute motivation for alcohol.

Mindfulness buffers the effects of cue-induced craving on alcohol demand in college drinkers

Alcohol consumption among young adult college students represents a significant public health problem. The presence of alcohol-related cues in drinkers' environments can trigger powerful alcohol cravings, which may influence drinking outcomes. Less is known about how this cue-induced craving influences behavioral economic demand for alcohol. In addition, research has suggested that trait mindfulness may be an important buffer of the effects of internal states of craving on drinking decisions. Based on this literature, we hypothesized that cue-induced cravings would be associated with increased alcohol demand, an effect that would be attenuated among drinkers who have higher levels of mindfulness. Young adult college student drinkers (n = 69) completed a laboratory-based cue-induced craving assessment, a self-report assessment of trait mindfulness, and an alcohol purchase task. Findings revealed that cue-induced craving was related to higher alcohol demand. Consistent with the study hypothesis, acceptance, a component of mindfulness, buffered the effects of cue-induced craving on alcohol demand. Results raise the possibility that mindfulness-based interventions may be useful in helping disrupt the link between internal states of craving and drinking decisions in young adult college student drinkers.

Journal Digest

Journal Digest

Imbalance between cognitive systems in alcohol-dependence and Korsakoff syndrome: An exploration using the Alcohol Flanker Task

ABSTRACTBackground: Alcohol-dependent individuals (ALC) simultaneously present decreased inhibitory control and increased attention towards alcohol-related cues. The dual-process models have proposed that these symptoms reflect an imbalance between prefrontal/reflective and limbic/automatic systems, respectively leading to cognitive dysfunctions in executive processes and to alcohol-related bias. However, most previous research has focused on a separate exploration of these systems among ALC, and the direct measure of their interactions remains to be conducted. Moreover, no study has explored the evolution of this imbalance across the successive stages of alcohol-related disorders, and particularly in Korsakoff syndrome (KS), the most frequent neurological complication of alcohol-dependence.Method: Ten KS, 14 ALC, and 14 matched control participants performed a modified Flanker task, the “Alcohol Flanker Task,” based on congruent, incongruent, and neutral conditions with alcohol-related stimuli. This task required inhibitory processing on alcohol-related stimuli and evaluated, through a behavioral approach, the interaction between reflective and automatic systems, as well as its evolution between ALC and KS.Results: ALC and KS both presented high reactivity towards alcohol-related stimuli, confirming the presence of alcohol-related bias. KS showed increased omission rates (related to distractor interference) while ALC showed higher false-alarm rates (related to prepotent response inhibition). These results suggest that different inhibitory subcomponents might be altered at the successive stages of the pathology, and experimentally confirms the crucial role of the interaction between reflective and automatic processes in alcohol-use disorders.Conclusion: The present results reinforce the proposal that alcohol-related cues significantly impact inhibitory control in alcohol-related disorders. However, ALC and KS present different patterns of deficits depending on task complexity (i.e., executive load), thus suggesting a dissociation in inhibitory functions when processing alcohol-related cues.

Effects of Exposure to Alcohol-Related Cues on Racial Prejudice

Abstract. Prior research ( Stepanova, Bartholow, Saults, & Friedman, 2012 ) indicates that exposure to alcohol-related cues increases expressions of racial biases. This study investigated whether such effects can be replicated with other tasks assessing racial bias and whether they stem from stereotyping or prejudice. In two experiments participants (N1 = 118; N2 = 152) were exposed to either alcohol-related or neutral advertisements, and then completed a race-priming lexical decision task (LDT, Wittenbrink, Judd, and Park, 1997) . Experiment 1 provided weak evidence that exposure to alcohol cues decreases positive attitudes toward Blacks, which was not confirmed in a high-powered replication (Experiment 2). Our findings suggest a short-lived nature (if any) of alcohol priming effects on racial bias when measured by the primed LDT.

The effect of self-control on drinking outcomes is mediated by automatic appetitive responses to alcohol

While trait self-control has typically been conceptualized as the ability to successfully inhibit responses to temptation, recent research has suggested that those who report higher levels of self-control may also experience less responsivity to tempting cues. To explore the question of whether the association between trait self-control and alcohol use among drinkers may be a function of weakened appetitive responses to alcohol cues, we utilized an alcohol-specific Implicit Association Task. One hundred twenty-two undergraduate drinkers completed the Brief Self-Control Scale, the alcohol-approach Implicit Association Test, and the Daily Drinking Questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the direct and indirect effects (through automatic appetitive responses to alcohol) of self-control on drinking outcomes, controlling for gender. Consistent with the hypothesis, automatic alcohol associations were found to partially mediate the relationship between trait self-control and both per-occasion alcohol use and the frequency of heavy drinking episodes. These results support the idea that those who exhibit high levels of trait self-control may drink less, in part, because they experience weaker automatic alcohol-approach associations in response to alcohol-related cues.

Neural correlates of instrumental responding in the context of alcohol-related cues index disorder severity and relapse risk.

The influence of Pavlovian conditioned stimuli on ongoing behavior may contribute to explaining how alcohol cues stimulate drug seeking and intake. Using a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer task, we investigated the effects of alcohol-related cues on approach behavior (i.e., instrumental response behavior) and its neural correlates, and related both to the relapse after detoxification in alcohol-dependent patients. Thirty-one recently detoxified alcohol-dependent patients and 24 healthy controls underwent instrumental training, where approach or non-approach towards initially neutral stimuli was reinforced by monetary incentives. Approach behavior was tested during extinction with either alcohol-related or neutral stimuli (as Pavlovian cues) presented in the background during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Patients were subsequently followed up for 6months. We observed that alcohol-related background stimuli inhibited the approach behavior in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients (t=-3.86, p < .001), but not in healthy controls (t=-0.92, p = .36). This behavioral inhibition was associated with neural activation in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) (t(30) = 2.06, p < .05). Interestingly, both the effects were only present in subsequent abstainers, but not relapsers and in those with mild but not severe dependence. Our data show that alcohol-related cues can acquire inhibitory behavioral features typical of aversive stimuli despite being accompanied by a stronger NAcc activation, suggesting salience attribution. The fact that these findings are restricted to abstinence and milder illness suggests that they may be potential resilience factors.Clinical trial: LeAD study, http://www.lead-studie.de , NCT01679145.

Cue Reactivity Essentials: Event-Related Potentials During Identification of Visual Alcoholic Stimuli in Social Drinkers

Cue reactivity is an automatic reaction to alcohol-related cues, contributing to the maintenance of drinking behavior and relapse in alcohol dependency. The identification of valid cue-reactivity features is a prerequisite for its clinical application. We were interested in the effects of visual features of alcohol cues (e.g., color) on cue reactivity. Assuming its development at a pre-pathological stage, we analyzed cue reactivity in heavy social drinkers, with light social drinkers as controls. We investigated whether cue reactivity was independent of visual features at an attentional (P100) and a motivational level (late positive potential, LPP). Event-related potentials (ERPs; P100, LPP) were analyzed during a visual beverage classification task in heavy social drinkers and light social drinkers (N = 34 university students). Photographs of beverages were classified as alcoholic or nonalcoholic. Two additional stimulus sets depicted unrecognizable scrambled visual information and recognizable black silhouettes of the original beverages. Analysis of contrast waves inferred content (unrecognized scrambled trials subtracted from original) and color information (recognized shape trials subtracted from original) during visual processing. Linear regression was used to predict Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores from ERPs. In heavy social drinkers, alcoholic-content LPP was increased and P100 latency was shorter compared with nonalcoholic cues. Linear regression for alcohol content condition in the overall sample revealed shorter P100 latency and increased LPP amplitude predicting AUDIT scores. None of those effects were significant in the visual-feature control condition. Alcohol cue reactivity in heavy social drinkers was related to faster early attentional processes and motivational salience. The effect occurred independently of visual features in the pictures.

Alcohol Priming and Attribution of Blame in an Acquaintance Rape Vignette

Research on nonpharmacological effects of alcohol shows that exposure to alcohol-related cues (i.e., alcohol priming) can increase behaviors associated with actual alcohol consumption. Attributions of responsibility to female victims in sexual assault scenarios are affected by whether or not alcohol was consumed by a victim and/or perpetrator. Victims often receive higher levels of blame if they consume alcohol prior to the assault. This work extends the research on nonpharmacological effects of alcohol into a novel domain of blame attribution toward rape victims. In two studies, participants in lab settings (Study 1; N = 184) and online (Study 2; N = 421) were primed with alcohol or neutral beverage advertisements as part of a purportedly separate ad-rating task and then were presented with a vignette depicting an acquaintance rape where the characters consumed beer or soda. Participants subsequently completed a questionnaire assessing victim blame and perpetrator blame. Across both studies, participants blamed the victim most when they were exposed to both contextual (story) and noncontextual (ads) alcohol cues; this effect was especially prominent in males in Study 1. Findings for perpetrator blame were inconsistent across studies. Implications of nonpharmacological effects of alcohol on blame attribution toward rape victims are discussed in the context of courtroom situations and bystander intervention.

Decreased alcohol consumption after pairing alcohol-related cues with an inhibitory response

ABSTRACTPrior research indicates that repeatedly pairing a stopping response with alcohol-related stimuli using a modified Go/No-Go (GNG) task decreases self-reported drinking by modifying implicit alcohol-related attitudes. The current study replicated and expanded upon this work to better clarify the intervention’s lasting effects and pilot ideas for potential mechanisms of action for future research. Forty-four heavy drinking young adult males were randomly assigned to inhibit responses to alcohol (alcohol/No-Go [NG]; n = 23) or water (water/NG; n = 21). At baseline and 2-week post-intervention, participants completed measures of alcohol use, implicit attitudes, alcohol expectancies, response inhibition, and alcohol approach/avoidance. At 2-weeks post-intervention, they participated in an ad-lib drinking session to directly measure drinking behavior. Alcohol/NG participants self-reported lower levels of alcohol use at post-intervention than baseline and took longer to start drinking during the ad lib drinking session in comparison to water/NG participants. In contrast to prior research, the intervention appeared to increase avoidance of alcohol and not significantly alter implicit attitudes. Results indicate that alcohol use measured 2 weeks post-intervention was lower than baseline levels for alcohol/NG participants. The GNG training may offer one path to reducing alcohol use among heavy drinking young adult males for at least 2 weeks.

Generalised inhibitory impairment to appetitive cues: From alcoholic to non-alcoholic visual stimuli

BackgroundPrior research demonstrates that individuals who consume alcohol show diminished inhibitory control towards alcohol-related cues. However, such research contrasts predominantly alcoholic appetitive cues with non-alcoholic, non-appetitive cues (e.g., stationary items). As such, it is not clear whether it is specifically the alcoholic nature of the cues that influences impairments in inhibitory control or whether more general appetitive processes are at play. AimsThe current study examined the hitherto untested assertion that the disinhibiting effects of alcohol-related stimuli might generalise to other appetitive liquid stimuli, but not to non-appetitive liquid stimuli. MethodFifty-nine participants (Mage=21.63, SD=5.85) completed a modified version of the Stop Signal Task, which exposed them to visual stimuli of three types of liquids: Alcoholic appetitive (e.g., wine), non-alcoholic appetitive (e.g., water) and non-appetitive (e.g., washing-up liquid). ResultsConsistent with predictions, Stop-signal reaction time was significantly longer for appetitive (alcoholic, non-alcoholic) compared to non-appetitive stimuli. Participants were also faster and less error-prone when responding to appetitive relative to non-appetitive stimuli on go-trials. There were no apparent differences in stop signal reaction times between alcoholic and non-alcoholic appetitive products. ConclusionsThese findings suggest that decreases in inhibitory control in response to alcohol-related cues might generalise to other appetitive liquids, possibly due to evaluative conditioning. Implications for existing research methodologies include the use of appetitive control conditions and the diversification of cues within tests of alcohol-related inhibitory control.

Strong seduction: impulsivity and the impact of contextual cues on instrumental behavior in alcohol dependence

Alcohol-related cues acquire incentive salience through Pavlovian conditioning and then can markedly affect instrumental behavior of alcohol-dependent patients to promote relapse. However, it is unclear whether similar effects occur with alcohol-unrelated cues. We tested 116 early-abstinent alcohol-dependent patients and 91 healthy controls who completed a delay discounting task to assess choice impulsivity, and a Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) paradigm employing both alcohol-unrelated and alcohol-related stimuli. To modify instrumental choice behavior, we tiled the background of the computer screen either with conditioned stimuli (CS) previously generated by pairing abstract pictures with pictures indicating monetary gains or losses, or with pictures displaying alcohol or water beverages. CS paired to money gains and losses affected instrumental choices differently. This PIT effect was significantly more pronounced in patients compared to controls, and the group difference was mainly driven by highly impulsive patients. The PIT effect was particularly strong in trials in which the instrumental stimulus required inhibition of instrumental response behavior and the background CS was associated to monetary gains. Under that condition, patients performed inappropriate approach behavior, contrary to their previously formed behavioral intention. Surprisingly, the effect of alcohol and water pictures as background stimuli resembled that of aversive and appetitive CS, respectively. These findings suggest that positively valenced background CS can provoke dysfunctional instrumental approach behavior in impulsive alcohol-dependent patients. Consequently, in real life they might be easily seduced by environmental cues to engage in actions thwarting their long-term goals. Such behaviors may include, but are not limited to, approaching alcohol.

Elevated alcohol consumption following alcohol cue exposure is partially mediated by reduced inhibitory control and increased craving

RationaleExposure to alcohol-related cues leads to increased alcohol consumption, and this may be partially attributable to momentarily impaired impulse control.ObjectivesWe investigated if exposure to alcohol cues would impair inhibitory control and if the extent of this impairment would partially mediate the effect of alcohol cues on subsequent voluntary alcohol consumption.MethodsWe recruited 81 heavy drinkers (50 female) who completed baseline measures of inhibitory control (stop-signal task) and subjective craving before random allocation to an alcohol cue exposure or control group. The alcohol cue exposure group then completed a second stop-signal task (with embedded alcohol cues) with concurrent exposure to olfactory alcohol cues, in an alcohol context. The control group completed a second stop-signal task (with embedded water cues), accompanied by exposure to water cues, in a neutral context. Then, subjective craving and ad libitum alcohol consumption were measured in all participants.ResultsInhibitory control worsened (compared to baseline) to a greater extent in the alcohol cue exposure group compared to the control group. Craving and ad libitum alcohol consumption were elevated in the alcohol cue exposure group compared to the control group, although the group difference in alcohol consumption fell short of statistical significance. In support of our hypotheses, multiple mediation analyses demonstrated that elevated ad libitum alcohol consumption following alcohol cue exposure was partially mediated by both impaired inhibitory control and increased craving.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that state fluctuations in inhibitory control are a potential mechanism through which alcohol cues increase drinking behaviour.

Visual attention to alcohol cues and responsible drinking statements within alcohol advertisements and public health campaigns: Relationships with drinking intentions and alcohol consumption in the laboratory.

Both alcohol advertising and public health campaigns increase alcohol consumption in the short term, and this may be attributable to attentional capture by alcohol-related cues in both types of media. The present studies investigated the association between (a) visual attention to alcohol cues and responsible drinking statements in alcohol advertising and public health campaigns, and (b) next-week drinking intentions (Study 1) and drinking behavior in the lab (Study 2). In Study 1, 90 male participants viewed 1 of 3 TV alcohol adverts (conventional advert; advert that emphasized responsible drinking; or public health campaign; between-subjects manipulation) while their visual attention to alcohol cues and responsible drinking statements was recorded, before reporting their drinking intentions. Study 2 used a within-subjects design in which 62 participants (27% male) viewed alcohol and soda advertisements while their attention to alcohol/soda cues and responsible drinking statements was recorded, before completing a bogus taste test with different alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks. In both studies, alcohol cues attracted more attention than responsible drinking statements, except when viewing a public health TV campaign. Attention to responsible drinking statements was not associated with intentions to drink alcohol over the next week (Study 1) or alcohol consumption in the lab (Study 2). However, attention to alcohol portrayal cues within alcohol advertisements was associated with ad lib alcohol consumption in Study 2, although attention to other types of alcohol cues (brand logos, glassware, and packaging) was not associated. Future studies should investigate how responsible drinking statements might be improved to attract more attention.

Alcohol-related cue-reactivity predicts abstinence duration in individuals with severe alcohol-use disorders

IntroductionAlcohol use disorder (AUD) is an important global public health problem with complex aetiology and relapsing remitting course. Clinical measures of alcohol dependence severity and alcohol-craving, are largely unreliable in identifying individuals at high-risk for relapse. Functional human neuroimaging methods that employ symptom provocation paradigms have shown promise in identifying critical brain regions with cue-elicited alcohol-craving response.ObjectiveThe present study aimed at examining the utility of fMRI cue-reactivity (CR) in predicting relapse risk.MethodsThe study was conducted on inpatients of a tertiary care neuropsychiatric hospital. Thirty-two treatment-seeking right-handed men were recruited for the study after informed consent. Following detoxification and 3-day drug-washout period, they underwent a task-based fMRI while viewing images of alcohol-related and control cues presented to them using a previously validated fMRI paradigm. All patients received anti-craving medications (baclofen: 60–80 mg/d, n = 16; naltrexone: 50–100 mg/d, n = 16) and were prospectively followed-up till their first alcohol lapse.ResultsRandom-effect analysis using one-sample test revealed significant CR to alcohol-related cues (relative to implicit baseline) with activation in salience-reward related regions [insula, cingulate, dorsal striatum (DS)], visual-attention regions [occipito-temporal] and deactivation of default-mode regions [posterior cingulate (PCC)] (all significant at PFWE &lt; 0.05, whole-brain corrected). Cox-proportional hazard regressions revealed that greater CR in Insula (Chi2 = 10.33; P = 0.001; HR = 3.1; 95% CI = 1.5–6.3) and DS (Chi2 = 10.87; P = 0.001; HR = 2.8; 95% CI = 1.5–5.2) predicts faster subsequent time to first drink after accounting for the role of clinical measures.ConclusionThese findings indicate that CR can serve as potential marker to identify individuals at high-risk for relapse. Further examination of intervention-related CR change may aid in personalizing treatment of AUD.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Acute alcohol effects on explicit and implicit motivation to drink alcohol in socially drinking adolescents.

Alcohol-related cues can evoke explicit and implicit motivation to drink alcohol. Concerning the links between explicit and implicit motivation, there are mixed findings. Therefore, we investigated both concepts in 51 healthy 18- to 19-year-old males, who are less affected by neuropsychological deficits in decision-making that are attributed to previous alcohol exposure than older participants. In a randomized crossover design, adolescents were infused with either alcohol or placebo. Self-ratings of alcohol desire, thirst, well-being and alcohol effects comprised our explicit measures of motivation. To measure implicit motivation, we used money and drink stimuli in a Pavlovian conditioning (Pc) task and an Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT). Alcohol administration increased explicit motivation to drink alcohol, reduced Pc choices of alcoholic drink-conditioned stimuli, but had no effect on the AAT. This combination of results might be explained by differences between goal-directed and habitual behavior or a temporary reduction in rewarding outcome expectancies. Further, there was no association between our measures of motivation to drink alcohol, indicating that both self-reported motivation to drink and implicit approach tendencies may independently contribute to adolescents' actual alcohol intake. Correlations between Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores and our measures of motivation to drink alcohol suggest that interventions should target high-risk adolescents after alcohol intake. Clinical trials: Project 4: Acute Effects of Alcohol on Learning and Habitization in Healthy Young Adults (LeAD_P4); NCT01858818; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01858818.

Deficits in go/no-go task performance in male undergraduate high-risk alcohol users are driven by speeded responding to go stimuli

ABSTRACTBackground: Response disinhibition plays an important role in addictive behaviors. However, results of studies on the performance on response inhibition tasks of individuals evidencing potentially problematic levels of alcohol drinking are mixed. Objectives: We assessed conditions under which persons with a relatively high risk of alcohol dependence show inhibition deficits in such tasks and investigated the nature of those deficits. Methods: Fifty-eight male undergraduate students, 27 of which were high-risk drinkers according to the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, performed a go/no-go inhibition task with differing percentages of no-go trials (50% vs. 25%), stimulus presentation times (600 vs. 200 ms), and types of go and no-go stimuli (alcohol related vs. -unrelated). Response inhibition was indexed by response time (RT) to go trials and response accuracy on go and no-go trials. Results: There were no differences between low- and high-risk drinkers on any of the three outcome measures under the 600-ms stimulus presentation condition. Under the 200-ms condition, the high-risk drinkers showed faster RTs to go stimuli, and more errors on both go- and no-go trials than the low-risk drinkers, irrespective of type and percentage of no-go stimuli. However, the accuracy differences between the two groups disappeared after controlling for the RT on go trials, suggesting a speed-accuracy trade-off. Conclusion: High-risk drinkers’ response inhibition deficits are not restricted to alcohol-related cues and are especially likely to occur under conditions prompting fast responding. These findings could be used to inform treatment, suggesting the promotion of strategies aimed at preventing high-risk alcohol users from making quick decisions.

Alcohol-cue exposure decreases response inhibition towards alcohol-related stimuli in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients

The induction of alcohol craving and the cognitive processing of alcohol-related stimuli in alcohol-dependent patients have been reported to compete with inhibitory control and contribute to alcohol relapse. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether the induction of a craving state, using an alcohol cue exposure paradigm, influences response inhibition towards both neutral stimuli and alcohol-related stimuli in alcohol-dependent patients. Thirty-one detoxified alcohol-dependent patients were exposed to either their preferred alcoholic beverage or to a glass of water. They then performed a modified stop signal task, which used alcohol-related words, neutral words and non-words, and a lexical decision as the Go response. The alcohol-cue exposure group reported significantly higher alcohol craving and showed higher percentages of commission errors towards alcohol-related words than the control group. All participants, but especially those of the alcohol-cue exposure group, showed also shorter reaction times when alcohol words were used as targets in go trials. The induction of alcohol craving in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients increases the motivational salience value of alcohol stimuli, leading them to automatically approach alcohol-related cues and therefore impairing response inhibition towards those stimuli.

Bibi ergo sum: the effects of a placebo and contextual alcohol cues on motivation to drink alcohol

RationaleAcute ‘priming’ doses of alcohol reliably increase alcohol-seeking behaviour in social drinkers. However, the effects of the anticipated (rather than pharmacological) effects of alcohol, and their interaction with contextual alcohol cues, are not well understood.ObjectivesThis study aims to determine the extent to which an alcohol-placebo drink increases craving, subjective intoxication and beer consumption, while conjointly investigating the impact of contextual alcohol cues.MethodsOn a within-subject basis, 64 undergraduate social drinkers consumed both a placebo (which they believed to contain alcohol) and a control drink (which they knew did not contain alcohol) in different sessions. Participants completed the study procedures in a bar laboratory designed to look like a ‘pub’ or a standard psychology lab containing no alcohol-related cues. Craving (Desires for Alcohol Questionnaire) and subjective intoxication were measured pre- and post-drink, and a bogus taste test to measure ad-lib alcohol consumption was completed at the end of each session.ResultsCompared to the control drink, placebo significantly increased craving, ad-lib consumption and subjective intoxication, regardless of environmental context.ConclusionsIncreased craving and ad-lib alcohol consumption after consuming a priming dose of alcohol is at least partly attributable to the anticipated rather than the pharmacological effects of the priming dose.

Attentional biases in patients with alcohol dependence: influence of coexisting psychopathology.

The effects of coexisting psychopathology on disorder-specific attentional biases in patients with alcohol dependence are uncertain. We undertook a cross-sectional study assessing attentional biases to alcohol-, depression-, and anxiety- related stimuli using the visual probe task in patients with alcohol dependence, attending a community alcohol service. Using the visual probe task, we presented disorder-specific words (relating to alcohol, anxiety, and depression) for 500ms and measured reaction times. Participants demonstrated a significant attentional bias towards alcohol-related cues (mean 8.5, p=0.03) but significant avoidance of depression-related cues (mean-8.4, p=0.01). The subgroup of participants who were recently abstinent (n=70) showed greatest avoidance of depression-related cues (t(69)=2.68, p<0.01) but no significant vigilance towards alcohol or anxiety cues, whereas those still drinking (n=43) showed attentional biases towards alcohol-related (t(42)=2.70, p=0.01) and social anxiety-related cues (t(42)=2.84, p<0.01). In the whole sample, the magnitude of attentional bias to alcohol was not correlated with length of drinking history, number of comorbid conditions, or severity of anxiety/depression. In a clinical sample of alcohol-dependent patients, further investigation is required to explore whether these attentional biases reflect current drinking status or factors indicating prognosis.