Converging lines of evidence suggest that individuals with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) may be characterized by heightened defensive reactivity, which serves to maintain drinking behaviors and anxiety/hyperarousal symptoms. However, it is important to note that very few studies have directly tested whether individuals with PTSD and AUD exhibit greater defensive reactivity compared with individuals with PTSD without AUD. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to test this emerging hypothesis by examining individual differences in error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related component that is larger among anxious individuals and is thought to reflect defensive reactivity to errors. Participants were 66 military veterans who completed a well-validated flanker task known to robustly elicit the ERN. Veterans were comprised of 3 groups: controls (i.e., no PTSD or AUD), PTSD-AUD (i.e., current PTSD but no AUD), and PTSD + AUD (i.e., current comorbid PTSD and AUD). Results indicated that individuals with PTSD and controls generally did not differ in ERN amplitude. However, among individuals with PTSD, those with comorbid AUD had significantly larger ERNs than those without AUD. These findings suggest that PTSD + AUD is a neurobiologically unique subtype of PTSD, and the comorbidity of AUD may enhance defensive reactivity to errors in individuals with PTSD. (PsycINFO Database Record
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/adb0000196 | DOI Listing |
Brain Behav
January 2025
Rehabilitation Psychology, Health Science Center, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA.
Introduction: This extensive literature review investigates the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD), focusing on the neurobiological changes associated with their co-occurrence. Given that these disorders frequently coexist, we analyze mechanisms through which alcohol serves as a coping strategy for PTSD symptoms, particularly highlighting the drinking-to-cope self-medication model, which suggests that alcohol use exacerbates PTSD symptoms and complicates recovery.
Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted across multiple databases, including PubMed and Google Scholar, to identify studies examining the intersection of the biopsychosocial model with PTSD, AUD, and associated neural alterations.
medRxiv
December 2024
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
Importance: Persons with substance use disorders (SUD) often suffer from additional comorbidities, including psychiatric conditions and physical health problems. Researchers have explored this overlap in electronic health records (EHR) using phenome wide association studies (PheWAS) to characterize how different indicators are related to all conditions in an individual's EHR. However, analyses have been largely cross-sectional in nature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Psychotraumatol
December 2024
Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.
Information on how parental risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) relates to their children's risk for drug use disorder (DUD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) is limited. This study is the first to utilize an extended adoption design which can address questions about the degree of, and sources of, cross-generational and cross-disorder transmission of PTSD and substance use disorders. We examined diagnoses using Swedish National registries for parents and their adult offspring ( = 2,194,171, born 1960-1992) from six types of families (intact (1), not lived with biological father (2) or mother (3), step father (4), step mother (5), and adoptive (6)).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCan J Psychiatry
January 2025
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo - The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) commonly co-occur. Momentary alcohol cognitions may represent in-the-moment, modifiable risk factors to target in interventions for comorbid PTSD and AUD. However, the role of such cognitions in risk for problematic drinking as it emerges in response to individuals' fluctuating PTSD symptoms across their daily lives remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Dual Diagn
December 2024
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
Co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) represents a prevalent and problematic comorbidity. Functional health literacy (FHL) may play a role in this comorbidity based on its previously documented role in hazardous drinking. The current study examined functional health literacy (FHL) regarding hazardous drinking among a sample with probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD).
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