Relationship between central autonomic effective connectivity and heart rate variability: A Resting-state fMRI dynamic causal modeling study.

The central autonomic network (CAN) serves as a regulatory hub with top-down regulatory control and integration of bottom-up physiological feedback via the autonomic nervous system. Heart rate variability (HRV)-the time variance of the heart's beat-to-beat intervals-is an index of the CAN's affective and behavioral regulatory capacity. Although neural functional connectivities that are associated with HRV and CAN have been well studied, no published report to date has studied effective (directional) connectivities (EC) that are associated with HRV and CAN.

Exploring predictors of substance use disorder treatment engagement with machine learning: The impact of social determinants of health in the therapeutic landscape.

Background: Improved knowledge of factors that influence treatment engagement could help treatment providers and systems better engage patients. The present study used machine learning to explore associations between individual- and neighborhood-level factors, and SUD treatment engagement.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN) dataset and United States Census Bureau data utilizing random forest machine learning and generalized linear mixed modelling.

In natura heart rate variability predicts subsequent alcohol use in individuals in early recovery from alcohol use disorder.

Impairment in autonomic self-regulatory functioning reflected by reduced heart rate variability (HRV) is a common feature of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and is believed to heighten AUD relapse risk. However, to date, no study has explored associations between in natura HRV and subsequent alcohol use among individuals seeking AUD recovery. In this study, 42 adults in the first year of a current AUD recovery attempt were monitored for 4 days using ambulatory electrocardiogram, followed by 90 days of alcohol use monitoring using timeline follow-back.

Time Since Last Drink is Positively Associated with Heart Rate Variability in Outpatients with Alcohol Use Disorder: Further Evidence of Psychophysiological Recovery in Early Alcohol Use Disorder Recovery.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a biomarker of psychological and physiological health with greater variability reflecting greater psychophysiological regulatory capacity. The damaging effects of chronic, heavy alcohol use on HRV have been well explored, with greater alcohol use associated with lower resting HRV. In this study we sought to replicate and extend our previous finding that HRV improves as individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) reduce or stop drinking and engage in treatment.

Time since last drink is positively associated with heart rate variability in outpatients with alcohol use disorder: Further evidence of psychophysiological recovery in early alcohol use disorder recovery.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a biomarker of psychological and physiological health with greater variability reflecting greater psychophysiological regulatory capacity. The damaging effects of chronic, heavy alcohol use on HRV have been well explored, with greater alcohol use associated with lower resting HRV. In this study we sought to replicate and extend our previous finding that HRV improves as individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) reduce or stop drinking and engage in treatment.

Education and careers were our way out.

Stigma thrives in vacuums of awareness where stereotypes are allowed to persist. When those of us with lived experience of addiction and addiction recovery stay in the shadows, we miss an opportunity to challenge a harmful narrative-that people with addiction are fundamentally different from other people and don't get better. Here, we three addiction treatment professionals share our lived experience of overcoming substance use disorder, highlighting how education and careers have formed the cornerstones of our recoveries.

Emotion differentiation in early recovery from alcohol use disorder: Associations with in-the-moment affect and 3-month drinking outcomes.

Background: Early recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD) is commonly associated with high levels of negative affect, stress, and emotional vulnerability, which confer significant relapse risk. Emotion differentiation-the ability to distinguish between discrete emotions-has been shown to predict relapse after treatment for a drug use disorder, but this relationship has not been explored in individuals recovering from AUD.

Methods: The current study used thrice daily random and up to thrice daily self-initiated ecological momentary assessment surveys (N = 42, observations = 915) to examine whether 1) moments of high affective arousal are characterized by momentary differences in emotion differentiation among individuals in the first year of a current AUD recovery attempt, and 2) individuals' average emotion differentiation would predict subsequent alcohol use measured by the timeline follow-back over a 3-month follow-up period.

SUBSTANCE USE AND ADDICTION AFFECT MORE THAN THE BRAIN: THE PROMISE OF NEUROCARDIAC INTERVENTIONS.

Purpose Of Review: Addiction and excessive substance use contribute to poor mental and physical health. Much research focuses tightly on neural underpinnings and centrally-acting interventions. To broaden this perspective, this review focuses on bidirectional pathways between the brain and cardiovascular system that are well-documented and provide innovative, malleable targets to bolster recovery and alter substance use behaviors.

Aggregating heart rate variability indices across sleep stage epochs ignores significant variance through the night.

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is a widely utilized biomarker of autonomic regulatory functioning, and concomitant health and pathological states. A growing body of work is exploring HRV under sleeping conditions. Most of this literature utilizes either averaged HRV indices calculated from multiple sleep stage epochs, or averaged HRV throughout the night.

Abstinence versus moderation recovery pathways following resolution of a substance use problem: Prevalence, predictors, and relationship to psychosocial well-being in a U.S. national sample.

Background: Many people who report resolving an alcohol or other drug (AOD) problem continue some level of substance use. Little information exists, however, regarding the prevalence of this resolution pathway, or how continued substance use after resolving an AOD problem, relative to abstinence, relates to functioning, quality of life, and happiness (i.e.

Mean Versus Variability: Disentangling Stress Effects on Alcohol Lapses Among Individuals in the First Year of Alcohol Use Disorder Recovery.

Objective: Although stress is a well-known predictor of alcohol use lapses among individuals seeking recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD), most research has relied on retrospective self-report using conventional questionnaires that explore stress effects at the level of the mean. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) overcomes many of the shortcomings of questionnaire-based, retrospective self-report by using real-time, in-the-environment evaluations for the acquisition of ecologically valid data that can also capture stress variability. The present investigation used EMA to disentangle stress effects on alcohol lapses among individuals in the first year of an AUD recovery attempt by exploring associations between mean-level stress, stress variability, and subsequent alcohol use.

THE ROLE OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGIOUSNESS IN AIDING RECOVERY FROM ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUG PROBLEMS: AN INVESTIGATION IN A NATIONAL U.S. SAMPLE.

Background: More Americans than ever before are identifying as "spiritual but not religious". Both spirituality and religiousness (S/R) are of interest in the addiction field as they are related to alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems and are central to some recovery pathways. Yet, little is known overall about S/R identification among people in recovery, the role these play in aiding recovery, and whether they play more or less of a role for certain sub-groups (e.

Reasons to be cheerful: Personal, civic, and economic achievements after resolving an alcohol or drug problem in the United States population.

Objective: Alcohol and other drug (AOD) use disorders impose a prodigious personal and societal burden. While most remit, little is known about the achievements accrued as people accomplish and sustain addiction recovery. Greater knowledge regarding the nature and prevalence of such achievements, when such achievements occur, what factors influence accrual of achievements, and how such achievements relate to other indices of functioning would support treatment and policy planning, and may instill hope for individuals and families seeking AOD problem resolution.

Sex differences in factors predicting post-treatment opioid use.

Background And Aims: Several reports have documented risk factors for opioid use following treatment discharge, yet few have assessed sex differences, and no study has assessed risk using contemporary machine learning approaches. The goal of the present paper was to inform treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) by exploring individual factors for each sex that are most strongly associated with opioid use following treatment.

Design: Secondary analysis of Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN) database with follow-ups at 3, 6 and 12 months post-OUD treatment discharge, exploring demographic, psychological and behavioral variables that predict post-treatment opioid use.

Closing the brain-heart loop: Towards more holistic models of addiction and addiction recovery.

Much research seeks to articulate the brain structures and pathways implicated in addiction and addiction recovery. Prominent neurobiological models emphasize the interplay between cortical and limbic brain regions as a main driver of addictive processes, but largely do not take into consideration sensory and visceral information streams that link context and state to the brain and behavior. Yet these brain-body information streams would seem to be necessary elements of a comprehensive model of addiction.

From working on recovery to working in recovery: Employment status among a nationally representative U.S. sample of individuals who have resolved a significant alcohol or other drug problem.

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) use disorders exact a prodigious annual economic toll in the United States (U.S.), driven largely by lost productivity due to illness-related absenteeism, underemployment, and unemployment.

Major depressive disorder and insomnia: Exploring a hypothesis of a common neurological basis using waking and sleep-derived heart rate variability.

It remains unclear whether neurobiological dysfunction observed in major depressive disorder (MDD) and insomnia is an expression of common or independent bases. The present investigation sought to explore differences in heart rate variability (HRV)-a widely utilized biomarker of neurobiological functioning-among individuals with MDD, insomnia, and healthy controls, while awake and during distinct sleep stages (REM, N2), with the goal of improving our understanding of shared neurobiological factors in depression and insomnia. Participants were 73 adults who underwent home polysomnography.

A randomized trial comparing the Tennant Biomodulator to transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and traditional Chinese acupuncture for the treatment of chronic pain in military service members.

Background: The present investigation tested the efficacy of the Tennant Biomodulator, a novel pain management intervention that uses biofeedback-modulated electrical stimulation, to reduce chronic pain and its psychosocial sequelae in a sample of current and former military service members. The Tennant Biomodulator used on its most basic setting was compared to two commonly used, non-pharmacological pain treatments-traditional Chinese acupuncture and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)-in a comparative efficacy, randomized, open-label trial.

Methods: Participants included 100 active duty and retired service men and women with chronic pain undergoing treatment at the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, USA, randomly assigned to receive six, weekly sessions of either Tennant Biomodulator treatment, traditional Chinese acupuncture, or TENS, in addition to usual care.

Improvement in women's cardiovascular functioning during cognitive-behavioral therapy for alcohol use disorder.

The cardiovascular system is disrupted by chronic excessive alcohol use and often impaired in individuals with an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Less is known about cardiovascular recovery when an individual receives treatment for AUD. This observational study aimed to extend the growing body of evidence for cardiovascular biomarkers and intervention targets in the treatment of AUD.

Medical Burden of Disease Among Individuals in Recovery From Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in the United States: Findings From the National Recovery Survey.

Objectives: The medical sequalae of alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems exact a prodigious personal and societal cost, but little is known about the specific prevalence of such medical problems, and their relationship to quality of life and indices of well-being among those recovering from problematic AOD use. To better characterize the lifetime physical disease burden, this study investigated the prevalence of medical conditions commonly caused or exacerbated by excessive and chronic AOD exposure in a nationally representative sample of US adults in AOD problem recovery. Comparisons were made to the general US population.

Addressing the opioid epidemic with behavioral interventions for adolescents and young adults: A quasi-experimental design.

Objective: While several behavioral interventions have shown efficacy in opioid use disorder treatment, little is known regarding which behavioral interventions work best for youth, and if treatment responses vary by developmental age or sex. We explored latency to first episode of opioid use among adolescents and young adults following opioid use disorder treatment initiation with: (a) adolescent community reinforcement approach (A-CRA), (b) motivational enhancement therapy (MET) combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or CBT alone (MET/CBT or CBT alone), or (c) treatment as usual (TAU; 12-step facilitation, supportive therapy).

Method: Adolescents and young adults (N = 785) entering treatment for opioid use disorder were followed for 1 year.

Lived Experience in New Models of Care for Substance Use Disorder: A Systematic Review of Peer Recovery Support Services and Recovery Coaching.

Peer recovery support services (PRSS) are increasingly being employed in a range of clinical settings to assist individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) and co-occurring psychological disorders. PRSS are peer-driven mentoring, education, and support ministrations delivered by individuals who, because of their own experience with SUD and SUD recovery, are experientially qualified to support peers currently experiencing SUD and associated problems. This systematic review characterizes the existing experimental, quasi-experimental, single- and multi-group prospective and retrospective, and cross-sectional research on PRSS.

Associations of depression severity with heart rate and heart rate variability in young adults across normative and clinical populations.

Limitations of current depression treatments may arise from a lack of knowledge about unique psychophysiological processes that contribute to depression across the full range of presentations. This study examined how individual variations in heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) are related to depressive symptoms across normative and clinical populations in 152 young adults (aged 18-35 years). Moderating effects of sex and antidepressant medication status were considered.