Impulsivity is considered a core feature of substance use disorders (SUDs), including personological (i.e., negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation) and neuropsychological (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImpulsivity is a complex construct that has been operationalized considering personality dimensions (e.g., negative urgency [NU], lack of perseverance [LPe], lack of premeditation [LPr], positive urgency [PU]), and neuropsychological processes (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Studies investigating temperament traits of drug abusers and their biological correlates have disclosed high rates of novelty seeking (NS) in opiate addicts, possibly based on dysfunctions of the dopaminergic (DA) system. The aims of the present study were to see whether or not the monoamine functions were impaired in detoxified addicts and whether or not these alterations were correlated with temperament traits, given the possibility that impairment of the biological and temperament parameters might be responsible for the development of addiction.
Methods: We have investigated the DA, serotonergic (5-HT), and noradrenergic (NE) functions in 22 abstinent heroin addicts and 22 healthy controls by challenging the monoamine systems with the DA agonist bromocriptine (brom), the 5-HT agonist D-fenfluramine (D-fen), and the NE agonist clonidine (clon), respectively.