Mediation of beneficial effects of an alcohol-specific inhibition training on drinking of patients with alcohol use disorder: The role of cognitive demands and inhibitory performance.

Background: A cognitively demanding, alcohol-specific inhibition training (Alc-IT) might enhance treatment success in patients with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD; Stein et al., 2023). An inhibitory working mechanism for Alc-IT has been discussed, but compelling evidence supporting this hypothesis is yet lacking.

Alcohol-specific inhibition training in patients with alcohol use disorder: a multi-centre, double-blind randomized clinical trial examining drinking outcome and working mechanisms.

Aims: For the first time, to our knowledge, in a clinical sample with alcohol use disorder (AUD), this study compared the effects of two versions of alcohol-specific inhibition training (Alc-IT) on drinking outcomes and on experimental parameters assessing two possible working mechanisms: stimulus devaluation and inhibitory enhancement.

Design: Multi-centre, double-blind, three-arm clinical RCT with 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up comparing standard Alc-IT, improved Alc-IT and an active control condition.

Setting: Three specialized AUD treatment centres in Switzerland.

Right Inferior Frontal Activation During Alcohol-Specific Inhibition Increases With Craving and Predicts Drinking Outcome in Alcohol Use Disorder.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is characterized by enhanced cue-reactivity and the opposing control processes being insufficient. The ability to inhibit reactions to alcohol-related cues, alcohol-specific inhibition, is thus crucial to AUD; and trainings strengthening this ability might increase treatment outcome. The present study investigated whether neurophysiological correlates of alcohol-specific inhibition (I) vary with craving, (II) predict drinking outcome in AUD and (III) are modulated by alcohol-specific inhibition training.

Reduced structural connectivity of the amygdala is associated with childhood trauma in adult patients with alcohol use disorder.

Childhood trauma (CT) is frequent in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and may impact on adult drinking behaviour and treatment outcome. This study aimed to investigate the structural correlates of CT in AUD, focusing on the amygdala, which plays a crucial role in the neurobiology of trauma. We hypothesized reduced amygdala volume and reduced structural connectivity as quantified by fractional anisotropy (FA) and by number of streamlines in those AUD patients with a history of moderate to severe CT (AUD-CT).

The role of the orbitofrontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens for craving in alcohol use disorder.

This study aimed to investigate structural and functional alterations of the reward system and the neurobiology of craving in alcohol use disorder (AUD). We hypothesized reduced volume of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), reduced structural connectivity of the segment of the supero-lateral medial forebrain bundle connecting the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) with the NAcc (OFC-NAcc), and reduced resting-state OFC-NAcc functional connectivity (FC). Furthermore, we hypothesized that craving is related to an increase of OFC-NAcc FC.

Neurophysiological correlates of alcohol-specific inhibition in alcohol use disorder and its association with craving and relapse.

Objective: This study investigates neurophysiological correlates of general and alcohol-specific inhibitory control in patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), focusing on its association with individual craving levels and with relapse at three-month follow-up.

Methods: 59 abstinent AUD patients and 20 healthy controls performed a Go/NoGo task incorporating alcohol-related and neutral stimuli during 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) recording, yielding four event-related potentials (ERP) per participant (NoGo-Alcohol, Go-Alcohol, NoGo-Neutral, Go-Neutral). Whole-scalp randomization-based statistics assessed effects of the factors group (patients/controls or relapsers/abstainers), craving level, response type (NoGo/Go) and picture type (alcohol/neutral) on topography and signal strength of the ERP components N2 and P3.

The Neurophysiology of Implicit Alcohol Associations in Recently Abstinent Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder: An Event-Related Potential Study Considering Gender Effects.

Background: Neuroscientific models of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) postulate an imbalance between automatic, implicit, and controlled (conscious) processes. Implicit associations towards alcohol indicate the automatically attributed appeal of alcohol-related stimuli. First, behavioral studies indicate that negative alcohol associations are less pronounced in patients compared to controls, but potential neurophysiological differences remain unexplored.

Alcohol-Specific Computerized Interventions to Alter Cognitive Biases: A Systematic Review of Effects on Experimental Tasks, Drinking Behavior, and Neuronal Activation.

In patients with alcohol use disorder, novel interventions to increase abstinence have attracted growing attention. Interventions aimed at modifying cognitive biases linked to alcohol use [i.e.

Learning to resist the urge: a double-blind, randomized controlled trial investigating alcohol-specific inhibition training in abstinent patients with alcohol use disorder.

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) leads to a significant individual and societal burden. To achieve higher therapy success rates, therapeutic interventions still need to be improved. Most current neuroscientific conceptualizations of AUD focus on the imbalance between an enhanced automatic reaction to alcohol cues and impaired inhibition.