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Decreased drug-cue-induced attentional bias in individuals with treated and untreated drug dependence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2014

Simona Gardini ,
Paolo Caffarra  and
Annalena Venneri
Simona Gardini
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Parma, Italy Clinical Neuroscience Centre, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom
Paolo Caffarra
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Parma, Italy Clinical Neuroscience Centre, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom
Annalena Venneri*
Affiliation:
Clinical Neuroscience Centre, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom Department of Neuroscience, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
*
Professor Annalena Venneri, Clinical Neuroscience Centre, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, England, UK. Tel: +44-1482-465558; Fax: +44-1482-465599; E-mail: a.venneri@hull.ac.uk
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Abstract

Objective:

The present study investigated the attentional bias induced by drug-related stimuli in active abusers; abstinent abusers on opioid substitution therapy; and abstinent drug-dependent patients in recovery on a community-based non-pharmacological therapy programme. Drug-dependent groups included both cocaine and heroin abusers.

Methods:

Classical and emotional Stroop tasks were used to test all drug-dependent patients and controls with no history of addiction. Response times were recorded. An interference effect was obtained by comparing the congruent and incongruent conditions in the classical Stroop version. An attentional bias towards drug cues was derived by comparing latencies in the neutral and emotional conditions of the emotional Stroop.

Results:

No between-group differences were found in the classical Stroop. In the emotional Stroop, active drug-dependent patients showed higher attentional bias (i.e. longer response times to drug-related words) than any of the other three groups.

Conclusion:

The attentional bias induced by drug cues in patients with addiction disorder might change depending on the patients' clinical status. All treated patients, whether on opioid substitution therapy or on community therapy, showed less attentional bias towards drug-related stimuli than active drug users, although the observed smaller bias was most likely induced by therapy acting through different mechanisms. Although drug-cues response is influenced by other multiple variables, e.g. motivation, craving, classical conditioning and substance availability, these data lend support to the hypothesis that treatment might contribute to decrease the attentional bias towards drug cues, which seems to play a critical role in achieving a positive outcome in the treatment of addiction.

Keywords

addictiondrug abusedrug cueemotional Strooptherapeutictreatment
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , August 2009 , pp. 179 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S

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