The effect of approach bias modification during alcohol withdrawal treatment on craving, and its relationship to post-treatment alcohol use in a randomised controlled trial.

Drug Alcohol Depend

Monash Addiction Research Centre, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; Turning Point, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address:

Published: October 2022

Background: Approach bias modification (ApBM) for alcohol use disorder helps prevent relapse, yet the psychological mechanisms underlying its efficacy remain unclear. Alcohol craving predicts relapse and appears to be related to the biased processing of alcohol stimuli which is reduced by ApBM. However, there is little research examining whether ApBM reduces alcohol craving.

Methods: In a randomised controlled trial testing the effect of 4 ApBM sessions (vs. sham training) on post-treatment alcohol use in 300 alcohol withdrawal inpatients, we administered the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire - Short Form - Revised (ACQ-SF-R) pre and post-training and at 2-week, 3, 6 and 12-month follow ups; and a cue-induced craving measure pre and post training.

Results: Groups did not significantly differ in terms of declines in ACQ-SF-R total scores (p = .712) or cue-induced craving (p = .841) between the first and last training session, nor in terms of ACQ-SF-R scores at follow-ups (p = .509). However, the ACQ-SF-R Expectancy subscale, which assesses craving based on anticipated positive reinforcement from alcohol, was significantly lower in the ApBM group than in controls following training (p = .030), although the group x time interaction for this subscale was non-significant (p = .062). Post-intervention Expectancy scores mediated only a small portion of ApBM's effect on post-discharge alcohol use (14% in intention-to-treat analysis, p = .046; 15% in per-protocol analysis, p = .020).

Conclusions: ApBM does not appear to have robust, sustained effects on alcohol craving. Reduced craving is unlikely to account for ApBM's relapse prevention effects. However, further research on whether ApBM's effects are related to devaluation of alcohol reward expectancy is warranted.

Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry Identifier: ACTRN12617001241325.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109621DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

alcohol
13
alcohol craving
12
approach bias
8
bias modification
8
alcohol withdrawal
8
craving
8
post-treatment alcohol
8
randomised controlled
8
controlled trial
8
cue-induced craving
8

Similar Publications

Assessing the impact of different solvents in the bacterial reverse mutation test.

Environ Mol Mutagen

January 2025

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Zydus Research Centre, Zydus Lifesciences Limited, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

The bacterial reverse mutation test is essential for identifying the mutagenic potential of chemicals. The solubility of the test substance is vital for achieving the recommended assay concentration. Preferred solvents like dimethyl sulfoxide and water are chosen for their compatibility and historical data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Desalting of oligonucleotides through precipitation for mass spectrometric analysis.

Nucleosides Nucleotides Nucleic Acids

January 2025

Department of Chemistry and Centre for Biotechnology, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada.

Contamination of sodium ions in oligonucleotides often causes issues in mass spectrometric analysis. This study investigated the efficiency of the combination of ammonium acetate and alcohol in desalting oligonucleotides. It was found that oligonucleotide samples containing up to 4 M NaCl can be effectively desalted through precipitation with ethanol or isopropanol in the presence of 1 or 5 M ammonium acetate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) describes a wide range of neurological defects and craniofacial malformations associated with prenatal ethanol exposure. While there is growing evidence for a genetic component to FASD, little is known of the cellular mechanisms underlying these ethanol-sensitive loci in facial development. Endoderm morphogenesis to form lateral protrusions called pouches is one key mechanism in facial development.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Alveolar ridge loss presents difficulties for implant placement and stability. To address this, alveolar ridge preservation (ARP) is required to maintain bone and avoid the need for ridge augmentation using socket grafting. In this study, a scaffold for ARP was created by fabricating a 3D porous dense microfiber silk fibroin (mSF) embedded in poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), which mimics the osteoid template.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cucumber () trichomes play a critical role in resisting external biological and abiotic stresses. Glandular trichomes are particularly significant as they serve as sites for the synthesis and secretion of secondary metabolites, while non-glandular trichomes are pivotal for determining the appearance quality of cucumbers. However, current methods for separating trichomes encounter challenges such as low efficiency and insufficient accuracy, limiting their applicability in multi-omics sequencing studies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!