Trauma Cue-Elicited Alcohol Craving as a Function of Adult Versus Childhood-Onset Interpersonal Traumatic Events in Young Adult Drinkers.

Objective: Childhood trauma may influence risk for alcohol use disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder through negative and positive reinforcement drinking. Laboratory studies evaluating childhood trauma in relation to these phenotypes are limited.

Method: This study examined the influence of childhood index traumas on responses to trauma and alcohol cues among 184 college students (50.0% female) endorsing lifetime interpersonal trauma and current weekly alcohol use. Participants' subjective alcohol craving and distress were measured in response to four narrative (trauma vs. neutral) and beverage (alcohol vs. water) cue combinations.

Results: Forward-fitted linear mixed-effects models indicated main effects of childhood index traumas on distress (β= 6.151, = .001) and craving (β = 0.656, = .023), wherein individuals with childhood index traumas showed evidence of elevated levels of distress and craving. Childhood index trauma interacted with the narrative cue to predict distress (β = -10.764, = .002), wherein individuals with childhood index traumas showed greater levels of distress to the neutral cue, and individuals with adult index traumas showed greater levels of distress to the trauma cue. Childhood index trauma interacted with the beverage cue to predict craving (β = -0.599, = .011), wherein childhood index traumas were associated with greater levels of craving to neutral cues. Childhood index trauma did not significantly interact with the beverage cue to predict distress or the narrative cue to predict craving (s > .05).

Conclusions: Childhood trauma may be more relevant to positive rather than negative reinforcement aspects of alcohol use disorder during young adulthood.