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Effect of craving induction on inhibitory control in opiate dependence

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Abstract

Rationale

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.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cue-induced craving states on attention and inhibitory control within addicted individuals.

Methods

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.

Results

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.

Conclusions

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.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Yücel is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Clinical Career Development Award (grant 509345). Dr. Verdejo-García is supported by a José Castillejo Fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (JC2010-0195). Dr. Vilar-López is supported by a José Castillejo Fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (JC2010-0193).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Center, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Antonio Verdejo-García, Anne Schwerk, Raquel Vilar-López & Murat Yücel

  2. Department of Clinical Psychology, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

    Antonio Verdejo-García & Raquel Vilar-López

  3. Institute of Neuroscience F. Olóriz, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

    Antonio Verdejo-García & Raquel Vilar-López

  4. Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, Eastern Health and Monash University, 54-62 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, VIC, 3065, Australia

    Antonio Verdejo-García, Dan I. Lubman & Raquel Vilar-López

  5. Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Kim Roffel, Trudi MacKenzie & Murat Yücel

Authors
  1. Antonio Verdejo-García
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  2. Dan I. Lubman
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  3. Anne Schwerk
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  4. Kim Roffel
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  5. Raquel Vilar-López
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  6. Trudi MacKenzie
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  7. Murat Yücel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dan I. Lubman.

Electronic supplementary material

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Table 1 supplementary material

Demographic and clinical characteristics of opiate-dependent participants classified as high vs. low compulsive by median split on the YBOCSUD scale (DOC 30 kb)

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Verdejo-García, A., Lubman, D.I., Schwerk, A. et al. Effect of craving induction on inhibitory control in opiate dependence. Psychopharmacology 219, 519–526 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2512-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2512-0

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