Investigation of attentional bias to word-related cues in male alcohol dependent patients / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo explore the attentional biases in male alcohol dependent (AD) patients and the correlations between the attentional bias and alcohol-related factors.MethodsA total of 30 recently detoxified male individuals with alcoholism were compared with 37 healthy controls ( HC ) on the Chinese Emotional Stroop Task using negative,neutral,and alcohol-related words.ResultsThe comparison between AD group( ( 1382.13 ±323.38) ms,( 1365.76 ±313.03)ms,( 1433.20 ±342.23) ms,respectively) and HC group( (797.27 ±216.97)ms,( 794.11 ± 209.41 ) ms,(799.40 ± 215.82 ) ms respectively) on the reaction time of neutral,negative and alcohol-related words were significant ( t =8.822,P ＜ 0.001 ; t =8.922,P ＜ 0.001 ; t =9.234,P ＜ 0.001 ).The error number of of the neutral and negative- related words of the patients ( ( 3.70 ± 2.56) time,( 4.23 ± 2.53 ) time)was worse than that of HC group( ( 2.11 ± 1.87 ) time,( 1.92 ± 1.82 ) time) ( t =2.939,P =0.005 ; t =4.355,P ＜0.01 ).Error number of the alcohol- related words between two groups were not significant;Its alcohol-related words attentional bias negative correlation to the age of initial alcohol use(P＜ 0.05 ),and positive correlation to continue drinking and score of self-rating depression scale (P＜0.05).Age of addiction and the score of self-rating anxiety scale enter the regression equation of alcohol-related words.ConclusionThese results demonstrate that alcoholics have attentional bias in alcohol-related words and reward-related brain regions may be associated with craving among male patients with attentional bias.