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Rehab News: Exposure-based addiction therapies could be extremely effective

Exposure-based addiction therapies could be extremely effective

Strong cravings for alcohol can be sparked by the mere sight, smell and taste of a person's favourite drink. Responses to cues that are associated with the positive effects of drinking are a lead cause of relapse in abstinent alcoholics. These findings suggest that exposure-based addiction therapies could be extremely effective.

Using a behavioural animal model, researchers of a new study, scheduled for publication in the August 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry, have found that the physical surroundings where alcohol cues are experienced can greatly influence the ability of those cues to trigger relapse.

Specifically, Chaudhri and colleagues taught rats to learn that a brief tone signalled when a small amount of alcohol would be available in a fluid receptacle for them to drink. This learning occurred in a distinctive environment consisting of a particular appearance, smell, and lighting. They were then put into a second, unique context with a different appearance, smell, and lighting, and were repeatedly exposed to the tone but never given alcohol. After several sessions in this new context, the rats gradually learned that the tone no longer predicted alcohol and consequently stopped checking the fluid receptacle. However, upon re-exposure to the original context where alcohol was available, presentation of the tone once again caused the rats to immediately check for it. "This finding demonstrates the power of environments to trigger relapse to alcohol-seeking in response to alcohol-predictive cues, " said lead author Nadia Chaudhri, Ph. D., with the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UCSF. "This effect is highly detrimental to humans who are trying to abstain from drinking."

Additionally, the authors also found that the capacity of an alcohol-associated context to trigger relapse to alcohol cues can be greatly diminished by presenting the cues repeatedly in multiple distinct contexts without alcohol. If used in the clinic, this technique of extinguishing responses to alcohol cues in multiple contexts could greatly increase the efficacy of current behavioural treatments for alcoholism. John H. Krystal, M.D., Editor of Biological Psychiatry further elaborates on this idea, commenting that "it is possible that exposure-based therapies could occur in a broader range of contexts so as to enhance their effectiveness. These contexts could be real, i.e., visiting bars or liquor stores, could be created using virtual reality techniques, or could simply be recreated by patients as they imagined visiting places that triggered their urges to drink." Additional research will clearly need to be undertaken to determine the effectiveness of such a technique, but these findings indicate that it may be a promising addition to addiction therapies.

Journal reference

Nadia Chaudhri et al, Context-Induced Relapse of Conditioned Behavioral Responding to Ethanol Cues in Rats', Biological Psychiatry, 2008 64 (3) 203-210

Article published on 27/07/2008 by DryOutNow.com

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Top researchers to explore stress and anxiety, trauma, poverty and addiction seminar

Promising scientific investigations that might someday yield new strategies related to anxiety, addiction, trauma caused by war or natural disasters, and brain development among children growing up ...

Individualists More Likely To Be Problem Drinkers

What makes residents of certain states or countries more likely to consume more alcohol? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, high levels of individualism lead to more problem drinking.

"We looked at the extent to which consumer levels of individualism (vs. collectivism) were related to their beer and problem alcohol consumption," write authors Yinlong Zhang and L.J. Shrum (both University of Texas-San Antonio).

"We found that the higher a region ...

scored on valuing individualism, the greater their beer and alcohol consumption, and this was true even when taking into account the effects of other variables such as income, climate, gender, and religion."

The researchers first used archival data to conduct comparisons of beer and alcohol consumption. They compared countries and compared states within the United States. They found that individualism, on a whole-country basis, could significantly predict alcohol consumption. In the United States, individualism correlated with teen drinking, teen heavy drinking, and adult binge drinking.

The researchers went on to manipulate the cultural orientation of individuals in the study. "We did this by simply asking people to either think and then write about enjoying their own life (independent self-construal) or think and then write about enjoying relationships with family and friends (interdependent selfconstrual)," the authors wrote. "We found that people who were temporarily induced to have an independent self-construal were more receptive to immediate beer consumption than were people who were temporarily induced to have an interdependent self-construal." Study participants did not actually consume beer; they merely indicated whether they felt like it.

The researchers found that people with more interdependent mindsets were less likely to over-consume when they were with peers. "The results suggest that people with collectivistic cultural orientations tend to be more motivated to regulate impulsive consumption tendencies than those with individualistic cultural orientations, which in turn makes them less likely to engage in beer or alcohol consumption," the authors conclude.

Reference

Zhang et al. The Influence of Self-Construal on Impulsive Consumption', Journal of Consumer Research, DOI: 10.1086/593687

Article published on 05/11/2008

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Early intervention provides 'greatest opportunity'

Researchers have said that early intervention provides the best opportunity to reduce the risk of drug and alcohol addiction in later life.

A study by experts at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston required 2,133 12 to 18-year-olds who were receiving outpatient medical care to answer six questions on their alcohol and drug use in order to screen for substance abuse.

The researchers found that 43.5 per cent had used alcohol or drugs and 14.8 per cent had positive results on the substance abuse screening test.

In addition, the findings show that young people were more likely to screen positive for drug or alcohol abuse if they were visiting their doctor because of illness (23.2 per cent) than if they were going for a routine check-up (7.1 per cent).

Writing in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, the researchers noted that drug and alcohol addiction is a chronic disease caused by a combination of genetic, environmental and behavioural factors.

"Early identification and intervention of adolescent substance use presents the greatest opportunity for reducing the burden of addictive disorders later in life," they insisted, adding: "Substance abuse screening should occur whenever the opportunity arises, not at well-child care visits only."

Article published on 07/11/2007

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