Cardiac defense reactivity and cognitive flexibility in high- and low-resilience women.

Resilience is a protective health variable that contributes to successful adaptation to stressful experiences. However, in spite of its relevance, few studies have examined the psychophysiological and neuropsychological mechanisms involved in resilience. The present study analyzes, in a sample of 54 young women, the relationships between high- and low-resilience, measured with the Spanish versions of Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale questionnaire and the Resilience Scale, and two indices of psychophysiological and neuropsychological adaptability, the cardiac defense response (CDR) and cognitive flexibility. The CDR is a specific reaction to an unexpected intense noise characterized by two acceleration-deceleration heart rate components. Cognitive flexibility, defined as the ability to adapt our behavior to changing environmental demands, is measured in this study with the CAMBIOS neuropsychological test. The results showed that the more resilient people, in addition to having better scores on mental health questionnaires, had a larger initial acceleration-deceleration of the CDR-indicative of greater vagal control, obtained better scores in cognitive flexibility, and evaluated the intense noise as less unpleasant than the less resilient people. No group differences were found in the second acceleration-deceleration of the CDR-indicative of sympathetic cardiac control, in the skin conductance response, or in subjective intensity of the noise. The present findings broaden the understanding of how resilient people change their adaptable responses to address environmental demands.

Negative mood induction normalizes decision making in male cocaine dependent individuals.

RATIONALE: Decision making is thought to play a key role in psychostimulant relapse, but very few studies have addressed the issue of how to counteract decision-making deficits in addicted individuals. According to the somatic marker framework, pervasive decision-making problems in addicted individuals may relate to abnormalities in the processing of emotional signals that work to anticipate the prospective outcomes of potential decisions. OBJECTIVE: The present study was conducted to test whether the induction of different emotional states (positive, negative, or drug-related) could either normalize or further impair decision-making performance in male cocaine polysubstance-using individuals (CPSI), as indexed by the Iowa gambling task (IGT). METHODS: Forty-two CPSI and 65 healthy control individuals (all males) were randomly allocated in four affective conditions using a parallel-group design. Participants in the different conditions performed the IGT during exposure to neutral, positive, negative, or drug-related sets of affective images. RESULTS: The results showed that the CPSI exposed to the negative affective context showed a preference for the risk-averse safe choices of the IGT and had a net performance indistinguishable from that of controls. On the other hand, CPSI exposed to positive, drug-related, and neutral contexts showed the typical pattern of disadvantageous performance in the IGT and performed significantly poorer than controls. The impact of the negative mood induction could not be explained in terms of baseline differences in decision-making skills, personality traits related to sensitivity to reward/punishment, or trait positive/negative affect. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that negative mood induction can normalize decision-making performance in male CPSI, which may have important implications for the treatment of cocaine use-related disorders.

Perfil emocional de los consumidores de 'revuelto' en comparación con consumidores de heroína y de cocaína / Emotional profile of 'speed-ball' abusers white regard to heroin and cocaine abusers

En los últimos años se está dando un cambio en el patrón de consumo, con un descenso en el consumo de heroína y un aumento en el de cocaína. Por otra parte, aparece una forma de consumir ambas sustancias juntas, heroína y cocaína, bajo las denominaciones de “revuelto”, “rebujo”, “speed-ball”, etc. Clínicamente se encuentran claras semejanzas entre estos consumidores de “revuelto” con los de heroína y ambos, diferentes con los de cocaína. Este estudio trata de comprobar si también la respuesta emocional está influenciada por el tipo de sustancia consumida y si dicha respuesta emocional en los sujetos consumidores de “revuelto” se asemeja más a la de los consumidores de cocaína o a los de heroína. Para esto se han estudiado 75 sujetos (34 sujetos consumidores de cocaína, 11 de heroína y 30 de “revuelto”) utilizando el I.C.E.R.E. (Instrumento Clínico de Evaluación de la Respuesta Emocional) basado en el modelo de emoción de Peter J. Lang. El I.C.E.R.E. está compuesto por 25 imágenes seleccionadas del Internacional Affective Picture System (IAPS) y la modalidad de respuesta es el Self Assessment Maniky (SAM). Los resultados obtenidos muestran que existen diferencias en la respuesta, ante estímulos emocionales, de los sujetos drogodependientes en función de la sustancia de consumo preferente, no existiendo diferencias entre los consumidores de “revuelto” y heroína y sí de estos con los consumidores de cocaína

A new trend is to be seen in the drug use profile over the last few years, with a fall in heroin use and a rise in that of cocaine. However, a new use has appeared, simultaneously taking heroin and cocaine, known as a speedball. Clinically, there are clear similarities between speedball users and heroin users and both differ from those taking cocaine. This study endeavours to ascertain if the emotional response is also influenced by the kind of substance used and if said emotional response in those taking speedball is more similar to that of cocaine users or that of heroin users. We studied 75 subjects (34 using cocaine, 11 heroin and 30 speedball), using the Instrumento Clínico de Evaluación de la Respuesta Emocional (ICERE), which is based on the emotional response model by Peter J. Lang. The ICERE comprises 25 images selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) and the response was measured using the Self Assessment Maniky (SAM). The results show that differences exist in the response of drug dependent individuals to emotional stimuli in respect of their preferred substance use, no differences exist between speedball and heroin users, and differences do exist between both these groups and cocaine users