Long-term effects of alcohol-avoidance training: Do changes in approach bias predict who will remain abstinent?

Background: Patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) tend to selectively approach alcohol cues in the environment, demonstrating an alcohol-approach bias. Alcohol-approach-bias modification (Alcohol-ApBM) effectively increases abstinence rates in patients with AUD when added to abstinence-focused treatment, but the evidence for its proposed working mechanism (reduction of the alcohol-approach bias) is limited. Moreover, not all patients benefit from Alcohol-ApBM, and previous research did not identify reliable pretreatment predictors of Alcohol-ApBM effectiveness.

Implementing Approach-Bias Modification as Add-On to Varieties of Clinical Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders: Results of a Multicenter RCT.

Introduction: Abstinence rates after inpatient treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) are modest (1-year rate around 50%). One promising approach is to re-train the automatically activated action tendency to approach alcohol-related stimuli (alcohol-approach bias) in AUD patients, as add-on to regular treatment. As efficacy has been demonstrated in well-controlled randomized controlled trials, the important next step is to add alcohol-approach-bias modification (alcohol-ApBM) to varieties of existing treatments for AUD.

Approach-Bias Retraining and Other Training Interventions as Add-On in the Treatment of AUD Patients.

In the past two decades, a variety of cognitive training interventions have been developed to help people overcome their addictive behaviors. Conceptually, it is important to distinguish between programs in which reactions to addiction-relevant cues are trained (varieties of cognitive bias modification, CBM) and programs in which general abilities are trained such as working memory or mindfulness. CBM was first developed to study the hypothesized causal role in mental disorders: by directly manipulating the bias, it was investigated to what extent this influenced disorder-relevant behavior.

Does selective inhibition training reduce relapse rates when added to standard treatment of alcohol use disorder? A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Alcohol-dependent individuals tend to selectively approach alcohol cues in the environment, demonstrating an alcohol approach bias. Because approach bias modification (ApBM) training can reduce the approach bias and decrease relapse rates in alcohol-dependent patients when added to abstinence-focused treatment, it has become a part of regular treatment. Moreover, in selective inhibition (SI) training, responses to one category of stimuli (i.

Cognitive training and remediation interventions for substance use disorders: a Delphi consensus study.

Aims: Substance use disorders (SUD) are associated with cognitive deficits that are not always addressed in current treatments, and this hampers recovery. Cognitive training and remediation interventions are well suited to fill the gap for managing cognitive deficits in SUD. We aimed to reach consensus on recommendations for developing and applying these interventions.