Psychology of Addictive Behaviors via MedWorm.com

Self-image bias in drug use attributions.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The aim was to examine the degree to which people's personal drug use affects how they perceive other drug users, with a view to investigating the possibility that drug use attributions are a function of self-image bias. University students (n = 60), categorized post hoc as drug users or nonusers, completed questionnaires assessing locus, control, and stability attributions about their own personal drug use or imagined drug use. Attributions pertaining to presented vignettes of light and heavy drug use by others were also assessed. Heavy drug use elicited the most “addicted” attributions (dispositional locus, low control, and high stability) and drug-using participants made more addicted attributions about their own personal drug use than did nonusing participants about their imagined ...

Associations between depression, distress tolerance, delay discounting, and alcohol-related problems in European American and African American college students.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0100

We examined the relationship between these variables and alcohol-related problems among African American and European American students (N = 206; 53% female; 68% European American; 28% African American) who reported recent heavy drinking. In regression models that controlled for drinking level, depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting were associated with alcohol problems among African American students, but only depression was associated with alcohol problems among European American students. These results suggest that negative affect is a key risk factor for alcohol problems among college student drinkers. For African American students, the inability to tolerate negative emotions and to organize their behavior around future outcomes may also be especially relevant risk facto...

The influence of confidence on associations among personal attitudes, perceived injunctive norms, and alcohol consumption.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Social norms theories hold that perceptions of the degree of approval for a behavior have a strong influence on one's private attitudes and public behavior. In particular, being more approving of drinking and perceiving peers as more approving of drinking, are strongly associated with one's own drinking. However, previous research has not considered that students may vary considerably in the confidence in their estimates of peer approval and in the confidence in their estimates of their own approval of drinking. The present research was designed to evaluate confidence as a moderator of associations among perceived injunctive norms, own attitudes, and drinking. We expected perceived injunctive norms and own attitudes would be more strongly associated with drinking among students who felt mo...

Drinking patterns of pathological gamblers before, during, and after gambling treatment.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Despite the high co-occurrence of alcohol consumption and gambling, few studies have investigated alcohol use changes during gambling treatment. Using latent growth modeling, we examined weekly alcohol use trajectories of treatment-seeking pathological gamblers across 36 weeks, allowing rates of change to differ across the 12-week pretreatment, during-treatment and posttreatment periods. For these secondary data analyses, we retained drinking gamblers (N = 163) from a combined sample of two randomized clinical trials for the treatment of pathological gambling. Results indicated a decrease in alcohol use corresponding with treatment entry and maintenance of less drinking during treatment and posttreatment. Despite these decreases in alcohol use overall, 31% (50 of 163) of participants exhib...

The relationship of childhood trauma to nicotine dependence in pregnant smokers.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100

We examined the relationship of childhood trauma to several measures of nicotine dependence and evaluated whether this relationship was mediated by major depressive disorder or depressive symptom severity in pregnant smokers. Moderate to extreme levels of childhood trauma were significantly related to smoking within 5 minutes or less of waking, and to the Behavioral Choice-Melioration, Negative Reinforcement, and Tolerance subscales of the Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (WISDM-68) scale. The relationships between childhood emotional abuse and the WISDM-68 Total and Negative Reinforcement subscale were partially mediated by depressive symptoms. Results suggest that childhood trauma may be a risk factor underlying nicotine dependence in pregnant smokers. Increased understa...

A beverage-specific measure of expectancies for malt liquor: Development and initial testing.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Malt liquor (ML) is a unique, high alcohol content beverage marketed to encourage heavy drinking. We developed the Malt Liquor Expectancy Questionnaire (MLEQ), a beverage-specific measure of alcohol expectancies, and examined its association with typical weekly ML use, typical weekly alcohol use, and alcohol problems. Forty positive and 40 negative expectancy items were administered to a sample of 639 young adults who regularly consumed ML. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses led to the development of the 30-item MLEQ. The MLEQ consists of two positive (i.e., Social Facilitation and Enjoyment, Enhanced Sexuality) and two negative factors (i.e., Aggression and Negative Consequences; Impairment and Physical Symptoms) that possess good internal consistency, test–retest reliability,...

Randomized controlled trial of brief interventions to reduce college students' drinking and risky sex.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The present study tested the proposition that an intervention to reduce alcohol use among college students will also reduce their risky sexual behavior. In a randomized controlled trial, 154 heavy-drinking, predominantly White, heterosexual college students at behavioral risk for infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases were assigned to receive no intervention or a two-session, in-person, motivational interviewing-based intervention focused on (a) reducing alcohol risk behavior, (b) reducing HIV risk behavior, or (c) reducing both alcohol and HIV risk behavior. Three-month retrospective assessments of alcohol use and sexual behavior were conducted at intake and at 3-, 6-, 9-, 12-, and 15-month follow-up appointments. During follow-up, participants who received the single-...

21st birthday drinking and associated physical consequences and behavioral risks.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Twenty-first birthday celebrations often involve dangerously high levels of alcohol consumption, yet little is known about risk factors for excessive drinking on this occasion. Participants (N = 150) from a larger prospective study who consumed at least one drink during their celebration completed questionnaires and semistructured interviews about their 21st birthday within four days after the event. Assessments were designed to characterize 21st birthday alcohol use, adjusted for alcohol content, as well as situational/contextual factors (e.g., celebration location, peer influence) that contribute to event-level drinking. Participants reported an average of 10.85 drinks (9.76 adjusted drinks), with experienced drinkers consuming significantly more than relatively naïve drinkers who had n...

Social norms and self-efficacy among heavy using adolescent marijuana smokers.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Adolescence is a time in which individuals are particularly likely to engage in health-risk behaviors, with marijuana being the most prevalent illicit drug used. Perceptions of others' use (i.e., norms) have previously been found to be related to increased marijuana use. Additionally, low refusal self-efficacy has been associated with increased marijuana consumption. This cross-sectional study examined the effects of normative perceptions and self-efficacy on negative marijuana outcomes for a heavy using adolescent population. A structural equation model was tested and supported such that significant indirect paths were present from descriptive norms to marijuana outcomes through self-efficacy. Implications for prevention and intervention with heavy using adolescent marijuana users are dis...

Domain-general and domain-specific strategies for the assessment of distress intolerance.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Recent research has provided evidence that distress intolerance—the perceived inability to tolerate distressing states—varies based on the domain of distress (e.g., pain, anxiety). Although domain-specific assessment strategies may provide information targeted to specific disorders or maladaptive behaviors, domain-general measures have the potential to facilitate comparisons across studies, disorders, and populations. The current study evaluated the utilization of self-report measures of distress intolerance as domain-general measures by examining their association with indices of behavioral avoidance and substance craving. Two groups of participants (N = 55) were recruited including a substance-dependent group and a comparison group equated based on the presence of an affective disord...

Gaming machine addiction: The role of avoidance, accessibility and social support.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Commonality in etiology and clinical expression plus high comorbidity between pathological gambling and substance use disorders suggest common underlying motives. It is important to understand common motivators and differentiating factors. An overarching framework of addiction was used to examine predictors of problem gambling in current electronic gaming machine (EGM) gamblers. Path analysis was used to examine the relationships between antecedent factors (stressors, coping habits, social support), gambling motivations (avoidance, accessibility, social) and gambling behavior. Three hundred and forty seven (229 females: M = 29.20 years, SD = 14.93; 118 males: M = 29.64 years, SD = 12.49) people participated. Consistent with stress, coping and addiction theory, situational life stressors an...

An internalizing pathway to alcohol use and disorder.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Research emanating from the field of developmental science indicates that initial risk factors for alcohol use and disorder can be evident in early childhood. One dominant developmental pathway connecting these initial risk factors with subsequent alcohol involvement focuses on the central role of disinhibited or externalizing behaviors. In the current paper, we delineate a second pathway that focuses on internalizing symptomatology. Several studies indicate that internalizing symptoms in early and middle childhood predict alcohol involvement in adolescence and young adulthood. We use a developmental psychopathology framework to describe a risk model that traces the potential developmental markers of this internalizing pathway and to consider the relation between the internalizing pathway ...

Childhood religious affiliation and alcohol use and abuse across the lifespan in alcohol-dependent men.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The current study examined the relationship between childhood religious affiliation and alcohol use across the life span. A sample of 931 men (average age of 51) from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry, which includes an overrepresentation of alcohol-dependent men, completed the Lifetime Drinking History interview, which assessed drinking across the life span. Childhood religious affiliation was obtained from the men's spouse/partner. Affiliations were subdivided into four categories: nonreligious, accommodating (religions that are relatively more accepting of the larger culture), differentiating (religions that set themselves apart from the larger culture), and Catholic. Differences in a variety of alcohol use variables by religious affiliation were examined, as well as the protective effect o...

Incident-specific and individual-level moderators of brief intervention effects with mandated college students.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Brief Motivational Interventions (BMI) and Computer-delivered interventions (CDI) have been successful in reducing drinking behaviors with mandated college students. However, research examining moderators of intervention effects have found mixed results. The current study sought to replicate and extend the research on moderators of intervention efficacy with mandated students. Baseline alcohol-related problems, readiness to change, gender, incident consequences, and participant responses to the event (personal attributions about the incident, aversiveness of the incident) were examined as moderators of intervention and booster condition efficacy on alcohol use and problems. Mandated students (N = 225) were randomized to complete either a BMI or CDI (Alcohol 101; Century Council, 1998), wit...

Religiosity, alcohol use attitudes, and alcohol use in a national sample of adolescents.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The purpose of this study was to investigate alcohol use attitudes as a mediator of the relationship between religiosity and the frequency of past month alcohol use in a national sample of adolescents. Data were drawn from 18,314 adolescents who participated in the 2006 and 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Variables included religiosity, alcohol use attitudes, and past month frequency of alcohol use. Structural equation modeling was used to test alcohol use attitudes as a mediator of the relationship between religiosity and frequency of alcohol use and to test model invariance across 4 racial/ethnic groups. Results suggest that alcohol use attitudes partially mediate the relationship between religiosity and frequency of alcohol use. Furthermore, while the pattern of these relat...

Time course of attentional bias for gambling information in problem gambling.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0100

This study examined whether problem gamblers (PrG, as assessed through self-reported gambling-related craving and gambling dependence severity) exhibit attentional bias for gambling-related cues. Forty PrG and 35 control participants performed a change detection task using the flicker paradigm, in which two images differing in only one aspect are repeatedly flashed on the screen until the participant is able to report the changing item. In our study, the changing item was either neutral or related to gambling. Eye movements were recorded, which made it possible to measure both initial orienting of attention as well as its maintenance on gambling information. Direct (eye-movements) and indirect (change in detection latency) measures of attention in individuals with problematic gambling beha...

Motives for cannabis use in high-risk adolescent users.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The present investigation examined the relationships between motives for cannabis use and negative consequences associated with cannabis use following a brief intervention. The sample consisted of 205 adolescent cannabis users (66.3% male), who were recruited in high schools and randomly assigned to a brief two-session motivational enhancement therapy (MET) or an educational feedback control (EFC). Results supported the hypothesis that using cannabis to cope with negative affect would predict the number of problems and dependence symptoms related to cannabis use, after controlling for age, gender, years and frequency of cannabis use, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Significant interactions between internalizing behavior problems and the coping motive showed that usin...

Randomized controlled trial of motivational enhancement therapy with nontreatment-seeking adolescent cannabis users: A further test of the teen marijuana check-up.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Cannabis use adversely affects adolescents and interventions that are attractive to adolescents are needed. This trial compared the effects of a brief motivational intervention for cannabis use with a brief educational feedback control and a no-assessment control. Participants were randomized into one of three treatment conditions: Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), Educational Feedback Control (EFC), or Delayed Feedback Control (DFC). Those who were assigned to MET and EFC were administered a computerized baseline assessment immediately following randomization and completed assessments at the 3- and 12-month follow-up periods. Participants in the DFC condition were not assessed until the 3-month follow-up. Following the completion of treatment sessions, all participants were offered ...

"Measuring university students’ self-efficacy to use drinking self-control strategies": Correction to Bonar et al. (2011).

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Reports an error in "Measuring university students' self-efficacy to use drinking self-control strategies" by E. E. Bonar, et al. (Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2011[Mar], Vol 25[1], 155-161). There is an error in Table 3. Item 8 in the table should have read: “Start off with at least 1 nonalcoholic drink before you start drinking alcohol.” (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-05934-004.) Using a Web-based, self-administered questionnaire, we assessed 498 university-student drinkers' self-efficacy to use 31 different behavioral strategies to reduce excessive drinking in each of three different locations (bar, party, own dorm/apartment). Averaging all 31 items within each drinking situation to create a single scale score revealed high internal con...

Developing the tools of implementation science in substance use disorders treatment: Applications of the consolidated framework for implementation research.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100

The implementation of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) and practices (EBPs) depends on both top-down and bottom-up responsibilities. Many articles in this special section on Implementation Science in Substance Use Disorders address the interaction between these two approaches when implementing new substance use disorder (SUD) treatments. Generally the articles place this interaction within the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), a relatively new and comprehensive synthesis of theories and conceptualizations of the components needed for successful implementation strategies. The range of SUD treatments covered includes well-established behavioral interventions, such as screening and brief interventions for alcohol, as well as new pharmacotherapies, such as buprenorphin...

Implementing evidence-based psychosocial treatment in specialty substance use disorder care.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Implementing evidence-based psychosocial or behavioral treatments for clients with substance use disorders (SUDs) presents significant challenges. In this article, we first identify the treatments for which there is some consensus that sufficient empirical support exists to designate them as “evidence-based,” and then briefly consider the nature of that evidence. Following that, we review data from a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey on the extent to which these evidence-based treatments (EBTs) are used in SUD treatment in the United States. The main focus of the article is a review of 21 studies attempting to implement EBTs from which we glean information on factors associated with more and less successful implementation. We conclude that more conceptual...

Introduction to a special section on implementing evidence-based interventions for substance use disorders.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100

This article introduces a Special Section of the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors on “Implementing Evidence-based Interventions for Substance Use Disorders.” It briefly describes the content of each of the seven manuscripts comprising the Special Section. The articles provide a overview of conceptual frameworks for, and summarize research on, the implementation of evidence-based treatments and practices for substance use disorders. Taken together, the articles make clear that successful implementation of a treatment innovation generally requires a multifaceted approach that considers: (a) features of the clinical intervention to be implemented, (b) characteristics of the individuals that are expected to adopt the clinical intervention, (c) features of the proximal and more distal envi...

Adolescent alcohol-related risk cognitions: The roles of social norms and social networking sites.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The present study examined the impact of socially based descriptive norms on willingness to drink alcohol, drinker prototype favorability, affective alcohol attitudes, and perceived vulnerability for alcohol-related consequences within the Prototype Willingness model. Descriptive norms were manipulated by having 189 young adolescents view experimenter-created profile pages from the social networking site Facebook, which either showed older peers drinking or not. The results provided evidence that descriptive norms for alcohol use, as portrayed by Facebook profiles, significantly impact willingness to use, prototypes, attitudes toward use, and perceived vulnerability. A multiple mediation analysis indicated that prototypes, attitudes, and perceptions of use mediated the relationship between...

What do women want? Alcohol treatment choices, treatment entry and retention.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Study aims were to assess preferences for individual or conjoint treatment, differences between women with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) selecting each modality, and the impact on treatment entry and retention of providing a choice of treatments. During initial screening, women with AUDs in an intimate relationship with a male partner were given the choice of individual or conjoint treatment. After choosing a treatment modality and completing all assessments they entered one of two randomized trials testing different approaches to each treatment modality. Standardized measures were used to assess drinking quantity, frequency, and problems; motivation to change; and relationship satisfaction. Women's reasons for choice of treatment modality were coded using an iterative coding process. Resul...

Event-specific drinking among college students.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 30 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

College represents a period of risk for heavy drinking and experiencing unwanted consequences associated with drinking. Previous research has identified specific events, including holidays (e.g., New Years), school breaks (e.g., Spring Break) and personally relevant events (e.g., 21st birthdays), that are associated with elevated risk of heavy drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences. The systematic evaluation of relative risk offers insights into event-specific drinking and an empirical basis upon which to consider allocation of limited prevention resources. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to provide a comparative index of drinking across a wide range of holidays and compare holiday drinking to 21st birthday drinking. Participants were 1,124 students (55% female) who ...

Gambling cognition and subjective well-being as mediators between perceived stress and problem gambling: A cross-cultural study on White and Chinese problem gamblers.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 23 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

This study aimed to delineate various pathways whereby cognitive and emotional vulnerabilities triggered by stress would lead to disruptive gambling. A multiple mediation framework was proposed to specify that gambling cognition and subjective well-being would mediate the influence of perceived stress on problem gambling. The cross-cultural validity of the proposed framework was examined with 132 White gamblers in Australia and 154 Chinese gamblers in China. They completed psychological scales on perceived stress, gambling expectancy bias, gambling refusal efficacy, negative affect, life satisfaction, and problem gambling. Compared to Chinese gamblers, White gamblers reported higher levels of perceived stress, gambling expectancy bias, and problem gambling as well as more pervasive negativ...

The effect of anxiety sensitivity on alcohol consumption among individuals with comorbid alcohol dependence and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 16 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Existing research has shown that anxiety sensitivity (AS) is positively associated with alcohol use, and that individuals with high AS use alcohol to avoid or escape negative affect associated with aversive stimuli. The current study investigated the associations between AS and drinking behavior among individuals with comorbid alcohol dependence and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We assessed baseline PTSD symptoms, AS, and drinking behavior among 151 participants enrolled in a randomized clinical trial for alcohol dependence. We hypothesized that AS would moderate the association between PTSD symptoms and drinking behavior, with PTSD symptoms being more strongly associated with drinking behavior among individuals with high AS. Results showed that AS was strongly associated with PTSD...

Thrill seeking and religiosity in relation to adolescent substance use: Tests of joint, interactive, and indirect influences.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 16 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Thrill seeking is a robust positive predictor of adolescent substance use. Religiosity is negatively associated with substance use among teens, although findings are mixed. Few studies have examined the interplay between these two prominent risk and protective factors. The current study addresses this gap by examining the joint, interactive, and indirect influences of thrill seeking and each of two dimensions of religiosity, religious salience and religious attendance, in relation to adolescent substance use. Participants were 667 rural youths (345 girls and 322 boys) and their families participating in a longitudinal family-focused prevention trial. Data were collected via self-report surveys at six time points across 7 years, spanning ages 11 through 18. Results from latent growth curve ...

Cue-reactivity in the natural environment of cigarette smokers: The impact of photographic and in vivo smoking stimuli.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The cue-reactivity paradigm has been used extensively in laboratory settings to study cue-specific craving responses to drug-related cues. However, this procedure has been used in only one study to assess craving in the drug user's natural environment (Warthen & Tiffany, 2009). The present study combined cue-reactivity with ecological momentary assessment (CREMA) to evaluate smokers' cue reactions in natural environments as a further validation and extension of this procedure. A total of 66 daily cigarette smokers carried a personal digital assistant (PDA) and had the opportunity to respond to 32 cue-reactivity sessions across 8 days. Cues were presented through in vivo and photographic modes. During in vivo sessions, participants handled and looked at a cigarette or neutral object, while ...

Early age alcohol use and later alcohol problems in adolescents: Individual and peer mediators in a bi-national study.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

This paper examines whether there is cross-national similarity in the longitudinal relationship between early age alcohol use and adolescent alcohol problems. Potential mechanisms underlying this relationship also are examined, testing adolescent alcohol use, low self-regulation, and peer deviance as possible mediators. Students (N = 1,945) participating in the International Youth Development Study, a longitudinal panel survey study, responded to questions on alcohol use and influencing factors, and were followed annually over a 3-year period from 2002 to 2004 (98% retention rate). State-representative, community student samples were recruited in grade 7 in Washington State, United States (US, n = 961, 78% of those eligible; Mage = 13.09, SD = .44) and Victoria, Australia (n = 984, 76% of ...

Dispositions to rash action moderate the associations between concurrent drinking, depressive symptoms, and alcohol problems during emerging adulthood.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

“Impulsivity” has been consistently identified as a key personality predictor of alcohol-related problems and subsequent alcohol use disorder. Multiple prior studies have demonstrated impulsivity is an individual difference factor that strengthens the effects of some risk factors, such as alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms, on alcohol problems. However, recent research indicated common measures of impulsivity actually reflect multiple dispositions toward rash action, and that alcohol problems were most consistently related to one of those dispositions, negative urgency. Little research has examined how specific dispositions to rash action may act as putative moderators of other risk factors for alcohol problems. The goal of the current study was to test which dispositions to r...

Alcohol approach tendencies in heavy drinkers: Comparison of effects in a relevant stimulus-response compatibility task and an approach/avoidance Simon task.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Several recent studies suggest that alcohol-related cues elicit automatic approach tendencies in heavy drinkers. A variety of tasks have been used to demonstrate these effects, including Relevant Stimulus-Response Compatibility (R-SRC) tasks and variants of Simon tasks. Previous work with normative stimuli suggests that the R-SRC task may be more sensitive than Simon tasks because the activation of approach tendencies may depend on encoding of the stimuli as alcohol-related, which occurs in the R-SRC task but not in Simon tasks. Our aim was to directly compare these tasks for the first time in the context of alcohol use. We administered alcohol versions of an R-SRC task and a Simon task to 62 social drinkers, who were designated as heavy or light drinkers based on a median split of their w...

Developmental pathways to adolescent cannabis abuse and dependence: Child maltreatment, emerging personality, and internalizing versus externalizing psychopathology.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Child maltreatment is strongly associated with adolescent psychopathology and substance abuse and dependence. However, developmental processes unfolding from childhood into adolescence that delineate this trajectory are not well understood. The current study used path analysis in a structural equation modeling framework to examine multiple mediator models, including ego control, ego resiliency, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms to investigate this developmental process. Participants were 415 children, assessed across 3 waves of data, (i.e., at ages 7 to 9, 10 to 12, and 13 to 15). The sample included maltreated (n = 259) and nonmaltreated (n = 156) children; groups were comparable in sociodemographic characteristics. Findings support an transactional–ecological model by reveal...

Thinking and drinking: Alcohol-related cognitions across stages of adolescent alcohol involvement.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100

This study explored (a) the relationships between alcohol use expectancies, nondrinking expectancies, and nondrinking motives; (b) the roles of these cognitions across hypothesized developmental stages of adolescent alcohol use; and (c) the relationships between these cognitions and recent or intended future changes in drinking behavior in a cross-sectional sample. Surveys assessing alcohol use behaviors and attitudes were administered to 1,648 high school students. Heavier drinkers reported more positive alcohol use expectancies and fewer nondrinking motives than did lighter drinkers or nondrinkers; however, nondrinking expectancies only differed between nondrinkers and rare drinkers and all subsequent drinking classes. Alcohol use expectancies, nondrinking expectancies, and nondrinking m...

The structure of client language and drinking outcomes in project match.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Client language during Motivational Interviewing interventions is an important predictor of drinking outcomes, but there are inconsistencies in the literature regarding what aspects of client language are most predictive. We characterized the structure of client language by factor analyzing frequency counts of several categories of client speech. The results provide limited support for a model proposed by Miller et al. (2006) and Amrhein et al. (2003) but with some important differences. While Amrhein et al. (2003) found that only increasing strength in client commitment language predicted behavior change, the current study revealed that client language preparatory to commitment predicted drinking outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology of...

Alcohol-related infractions among college students: Associations with subsequent drinking as a function of sensitivity to punishment.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Problematic alcohol use on college campuses is a significant concern. Violations of campus alcohol policies can lead to disciplinary action from the university. These and other alcohol-related legal infractions may be a sign of significant alcohol-related problems. However, few studies have focused on determining predictors of alcohol-related infractions among college students. Likewise, the role of infractions in reducing future use is unclear. In the present study, we tested whether alcohol-related infractions were associated with decreased alcohol use, and whether the effect of the infraction varied as a function of initial drinking levels, sensitivity to punishment (SP), and sensitivity to reward (SR) in a 6-month prospective design. Alcohol use, grade point average, and SR were signif...

Contextual correlates of adolescents' self-efficacy after smoking cessation.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Recent research has shown that daily changes in self-efficacy predict lapses and relapse into smoking after quitting among adolescent daily smokers, but it is not known if and how momentary self-efficacy is associated with affect-motivational states and external contexts. In the present study, 134 adolescent daily smokers were monitored daily during 1 week prior to and 3 weeks after they began their quit attempt. Participants completed questions on smoking, self-efficacy, affect-motivational states (craving and negative affect), and external contexts (seeing others smoke, experiencing a stressful event, and alcohol and coffee consumption) three times a day. Affect-motivational states as well as all external contexts (except for coffee consumption) were associated with lower self-efficacy w...

Strategies to implement alcohol screening and brief intervention in primary care settings: A structured literature review.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Although alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) reduces drinking in primary care patients with unhealthy alcohol use, incorporating SBI into clinical settings has been challenging. We systematically reviewed the literature on implementation studies of alcohol SBI using a broad conceptual model of implementation, the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), to identify domains addressed by programs that achieved high rates of screening and/or brief intervention (BI). Seventeen articles from 8 implementation programs were included; studies were conducted in 9 countries and represented 533,903 patients (127,304 patients screened), 2,001 providers, and 1,805 clinics. Rates of SBI varied across articles (2–93% for screening and 0.9–73.1% for BI). Implementation pro...

A randomized clinical trial of a palmtop computer-delivered treatment for smoking relapse prevention among women.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Relapse is the rule rather than the exception among smokers attempting to quit, and compared to men, women may have higher relapse rates. The current study was a randomized clinical trial testing a palmtop computer-delivered treatment (CDT) for smoking relapse prevention among women. The intervention was individualized based on key theoretical constructs that were measured using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). All participants (N = 302) received standard smoking cessation treatment consisting of nicotine replacement therapy and group counseling, and completed EMA procedures for one week after quitting. At the completion of the group counseling sessions and EMA procedures, participants were randomized to either CDT or no further computer-delivered treatment or assessment (EMA-Only). ...

Posttraumatic stress disorder and cannabis use in a nationally representative sample.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The present study examined the relations between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cannabis use in a large representative survey of adults (N = 5,672) from the United States (Kessler et al., 2004). After adjusting for sociodemographic variables (i.e., age, marital status, ethnicity, education, income, and sex), alcohol use disorders, and nicotine dependence, lifetime and current (past year) PTSD diagnoses were associated with increased odds of lifetime history of cannabis use as well as past year daily cannabis use. Lifetime, but not current, PTSD diagnosis also was uniquely associated with increased risk for any past year cannabis use. Additional analyses revealed that the relations between PTSD (lifetime and current) and lifetime cannabis use remained statistically significant whe...

The influence of general identity disturbance on reports of lifetime substance use disorders and related outcomes among sexual minority adults with a history of substance use.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Previous research has shown that sexual minority (i.e., nonheterosexual) individuals report increased problematic substance use involvement, compared with their sexual majority counterparts. We hypothesize that feelings of an unstable sense of self (i.e., identity disturbance) may potentially drive problematic substance use. The purpose of the current study is to examine identity disturbance among sexual minorities as a potential explanatory mechanism of increased sexual minority lifetime rates of substance dependence. Measures of identity disturbance and three indicators of sexual orientation from lifetime female (n = 16,629) and male (n = 13,553) alcohol/illicit drug users in Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) were examined. Findings ge...

Point process analyses of variations in smoking rate by setting, mood, gender, and dependence.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The immediate emotional and situational antecedents of ad-libitum smoking are still not well understood. We reanalyzed data from ecological momentary assessment using novel point process analyses to assess how craving, mood, and social setting influence smoking rate, as well as to assess the moderating effects of gender and nicotine dependence. Smokers (N = 304) recorded craving, mood, and social setting using electronic diaries when smoking and at random nonsmoking times over 16 days of smoking. Point process analysis, which makes use of the known random sampling scheme for momentary variables, examined main effects of setting and interactions with gender and dependence. Increased craving was associated with higher rates of smoking, particularly among women. Negative affect was not associ...

Predictors of heavy drinking during and following treatment.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Alcohol dependence has been described as a relapsing condition and it has been proposed that alcohol lapses could potentially be explained by dynamic associations between contextual, interpersonal, and intrapersonal risk factors. Yet, few studies have tested the associations between risk factors in the prediction of lapse dynamics. The current study was a secondary analysis of data from the COMBINE study (n = 1,383; COMBINE Study Research Group, 2003). The goal of the current study was to examine static (alcohol dependence severity, treatment history, marital status, psychiatric symptoms) and dynamic (negative affect, craving, stress) predictors of heavy drinking during the course of treatment and up to one year following treatment. Results from dynamic latent difference score models indic...

Predictors of engaging in problem gambling treatment: Data from the West Virginia Problem Gamblers Help Network.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

This study investigated treatment engagement after calling a gambling help-line. From 2000–2007 over 2,900 unique callers were offered an in-person assessment appointment. Logistic regression analyses assessed predictors of (a) accepting the referral to the in-person assessment appointment and (b) attending the in-person assessment appointment. Over 76% of callers accepted the referral and 55% of all callers attended the in-person assessment appointment. This treatment engagement rate is higher than typically found for other help-lines. Demographic factors and clinical factors such as gender, severity of gambling problems, amount of gambling debt, and coercion by legal and social networks predicted engagement in treatment. Programmatic factors such as offering an appointment within 72 hr...

Facilitators and barriers in implementing buprenorphine in the Veterans Health Administration.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Opioid dependence is a chronic, relapsing disorder that deleteriously influences the health of those afflicted. Sublingual buprenorphine opioid agonist treatment (OAT) has been shown to be safe, effective, and cost-effective for the treatment of opioid dependence in nonspecialized, office-based settings, including the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). We sought to examine and describe provider-, facility-, and system-level barriers and facilitators to implementing buprenorphine therapy within the VHA. From June 2006 to October 2007, we conducted semistructured telephone interviews of key personnel at a national sample of VHA facilities with high prevalence of opioid dependence and without methadone OAT programs. Sites were categorized based on the number of veterans receiving buprenorp...

Memory for future gambling wins.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100

We examined the degree to which believed memory-like representations for future gambling wins and losses were associated with prior substantial win experiences, frequency of gambling, risk for problem gambling, and other types of gambling expectancies. Regular gamblers with and without prior substantial wins rated the strength of a specific outcome expectancy, their belief that substantial gambling wins and losses would occur in the future, and rated the strength of “memory” for future gambling wins and losses. They then described a future win and a future loss and rated memory-like phenomenal characteristics for these events. Prior winners rated future wins as more believable relative to future losses, and rated future gambling outcomes as more memory-like than did gamblers without pr...

Accuracy of a brief screening scale for lifetime major depression in cigarette smokers.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100

History of major depression is increasingly being measured in smoking cessation trials using brief screening scales, typically only 1–2 items, despite that their validity has not been fully established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the positive predictive value (PPV) of a 4-item screening scale of lifetime major depressive episode (MDE). Current (n = 475), former (n = 401), and never (n = 646) smokers were asked about a history of depressed mood and anhedonia lasting several days or longer. Endorsers of either depressed mood or anhedonia were then asked about whether the symptom(s) lasted most of the day nearly every day for two weeks or longer. Symptom endorsers, regardless of symptom duration, were administered the depression module of the Composite International Diagnostic In...

Interactions between self-reported alcohol outcome expectancies and cognitive functioning in the prediction of alcohol use and associated problems: A further examination.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100

A recent debate regarding the theoretical distinction between explicit and implicit cognitive processes relevant to alcohol-related behaviors was strongly shaped by empirical findings from dual-process models (Moss & Albery, 2009; Wiers & Stacy, 2010; Moss & Albery, 2010). Specifically, as part of a broader discussion, Wiers & Stacy (2010) contended that alcohol-related behaviors are better predicted by self-reported alcohol expectancies for individuals with good executive control and verbal abilities relative to those without such abilities. The purpose of the current paper is to further test whether self-reported alcohol outcome expectancies are moderated by measures of cognitive functioning. Using multiple indices of alcohol use, alcohol-related consequences, self-reported alcohol outco...

Mental health, not social support, mediates the forgiveness-alcohol outcome relationship.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100

Religiousness and spirituality are important to most Americans, and evidence suggests that they may contribute to both addiction and recovery. Forgiveness is a specific dimension of religiousness and spirituality that may enhance recovery, but the mechanism(s) through which it operates is unknown. We hypothesized that higher levels of forgiveness would be associated with higher levels of mental health and social support, which, in turn, would be associated with improved alcohol-related outcomes. Baseline and 6-month longitudinal data from a sample of 149 individuals with alcohol use disorders seeking outpatient substance abuse treatment were analyzed through multiple-mediation statistical techniques. While previous research has shown direct associations among forgiveness, alcohol-related o...

A naturalistic study of the associations between changes in alcohol problems, spiritual functioning, and psychiatric symptoms.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100

The study evaluated how spiritual and religious functioning (SRF), alcohol-related problems, and psychiatric symptoms change over the course of treatment and follow-up. Problem drinkers (n = 55, including 39 males and 16 females) in outpatient treatment were administered questionnaires at pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow up, which assessed two aspects of SRF (religious well-being and existential well-being), two aspects of alcohol misuse (severity and consequences), and two aspects of psychiatric symptoms (depression and anxiety). Significant improvements in SRF, psychiatric symptoms and alcohol misuse were observed from pretreatment to follow-up. Although SRF scores were significantly correlated with psychiatric symptoms at all three time points, improvement in the former did not p...

Alcohol use disorder history moderates the relationship between avoidance coping and posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100

In this study, the relationship between AVC and PTSD symptoms (PTSS) was examined in individuals with versus without AUDs. Motor vehicle accident (MVA) victims were assessed 6 weeks postaccident for AUD history (i.e. diagnoses of current or past alcohol abuse or dependence) and AVC. PTSS were assessed 6 weeks and 6 months post-MVA. All analyses were conducted on the full sample of MVA victims as well as on the subset of participants who were legally intoxicated (blood alcohol concentration ≥ 0.08) during the accident. It was hypothesized that the relationship between AVC and PTSS would be stronger in those individuals with an AUD history and especially strong in the subset of individuals who were legally intoxicated during the MVA. Results were largely supportive of this hypothesis, even...

Heroin purchasing is income and price sensitive.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Semi-structured interviews were used to assess behavioral economic drug demand in heroin dependent research volunteers. Findings on drug price, competing purchases, and past 30-day income and consumption, established in a previous study, are replicated. We extended these findings by having participants indicate whether hypothetical environmental changes would alter heroin purchasing. Participants (n = 109) reported they would significantly (p < .005) decrease heroin daily purchasing amounts (DPA) from past 30-day levels (M = $60/day) if: (a) they encountered a 33% decrease in income (DPA = $34), (b) family/friends no longer paid their living expenses (DPA = $32), or (c) they faced four-fold greater likelihood of police arrest at their purchasing location (DPA = $42). Participants in higher...

The role of college students' use of protective behavioral strategies in the relation between binge drinking and alcohol-related problems.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Previous research has examined protective behavioral strategies (PBS), or cognitive-behavioral strategies that may be employed when using alcohol to reduce consumption and related problems, as an important predictor of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. More recently, studies have explored the mediating and moderating role of PBS on the relationships between key alcohol-related risk factors (i.e., drinking motives, depressive symptoms, binge drinking) and alcohol problems; however, current research examining PBS as a moderator of the relationship between alcohol use and related problems has methodological limitations. The purpose of the present study was to extend previous literature to examine the moderating effect of PBS on the relationship between binge drinking and alcohol-relat...

Pregaming in high school students: Relevance to risky drinking practices, alcohol cognitions, and the social drinking context.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Pregaming is the practice of consuming alcohol prior to going out to a social event. Although pregaming has begun to receive research attention in the college setting, very little is known about this risky drinking behavior in high school students. As pregaming has health implications for both students who are college bound and those who are not, we examined the prevalence of this behavior in a sample of high school students who reported current alcohol use and completed pregaming measures (n = 233). The present study examined the associations of gender, age, alcohol expectancies, motivations for drinking (e.g., social, enhancement, and coping), and engagement in other risky drinking practices (i.e., general hazardous use and drinking game participation) with pregaming. Results indicate th...

Effect of night smoking, sleep disturbance, and their co-occurrence on smoking outcomes.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Recent evidence suggests that smoking during the night is an indicator of nicotine dependence and predicts smoking cessation failure. Night smokers are likely to experience disturbance to their sleep cycle when they wake to smoke, but we are not aware of the prevalence of night smokers' self-reported sleep disturbance. Because sleep disturbance also predicts smoking cessation failure, we examined how the pre-cessation risk factors of night smoking and sleep disturbance, and their co-occurrence, predict smoking cessation failure in a 6-week double-blind randomized controlled trial examining whether naltrexone augments the efficacy of the nicotine patch (O'Malley et al., 2006). Smokers (N = 385) completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse, Reynolds, Monk, Berman, & Kupfer, 1989) and...

Contingency management is especially efficacious in engendering long durations of abstinence in patients with sexual abuse histories.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Exposure to sexual victimization is prevalent among persons with substance use disorders (SUDs). Contingency management (CM) treatments utilize concrete and relatively immediate positive reinforcers to retain patients in treatment and reduce substance use, and CM may have particular benefits for patients with histories of sexual victimization. Using data from three randomized trials of CM (N = 393), this study evaluated main and interactive effects of sexual abuse history and treatment condition (standard care versus CM) with respect to during treatment outcomes (retention, proportion of negative urine samples submitted, and longest duration of abstinence) and abstinence at a nine-month follow-up. Compared to patients without sexual abuse histories (N = 316), those with sexual abuse histor...

Behavioral and emotional regulation and adolescent substance use problems: A test of moderation effects in a dual-process model.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

In a structural model, we tested how relations of predictors to level of adolescent substance use (tobacco, alcohol, marijuana), and to substance-related impaired-control and behavior problems, are moderated by good self-control and poor regulation in behavioral and emotional domains. The participants were a sample of 1,116 public high-school students. In a multiple-group analysis for good self-control, the paths from negative life events to substance use level and from level to behavior problems were lower among persons scoring higher on good behavioral self-control. In a multiple-group analysis for poor regulation, the paths from negative life events and peer use to level of substance use were greater among persons scoring higher on poor behavioral (but not emotional) regulation; an inve...

Self-efficacy change as a mediator of associations between therapeutic bond and one-year outcomes in treatments for alcohol dependence.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Empirically-supported treatments for alcohol dependence exist, yet understanding of influences contributing to the intended behavior change is limited. The current study, a secondary analysis of the recent multisite COMBINE trial (The COMBINE Study Research Group, 2003), tested a mediational model wherein change in client self-efficacy for abstinence was examined as a potential mediator of associations between client report of the therapeutic bond and one-year outcomes of drinking frequency, drinking consequences, and psychiatric functioning. For analyses, the 1383 COMBINE trial participants were grouped as follows: 1) those receiving study medications (naltrexone, acamprosate, naltrexone + acamprosate, placebo) and enrolled in medication management (MM) only (n = 607), 2) those receiving ...

Integration of treatment innovation planning and implementation: Strategic process models and organizational challenges.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Sustained and effective use of evidence-based practices in substance abuse treatment services faces both clinical and contextual challenges. Implementation approaches are reviewed that rely on variations of plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles, but most emphasize conceptual identification of core components for system change strategies. A two-phase procedural approach is therefore presented based on the integration of Texas Christian University (TCU) models and related resources for improving treatment process and program change. Phase 1 focuses on the dynamics of clinical services, including stages of client recovery (cross-linked with targeted assessments and interventions), as the foundations for identifying and planning appropriate innovations to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Phase ...

Implementation of evidence-based substance use disorder continuing care interventions.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Continuing care following initial substance use disorder treatment often is associated with improved treatment outcomes and evidence-based interventions (EBIs) have been developed in this area. However, rates of patient participation in continuing care treatment and mutual help groups (MHGs) are low and a large gap exists between the existing EBIs and actual clinical care. This paper uses the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR; Damschroder et al., 2009) to review the literature on continuing care treatment and monitoring, and mutual help-group promotion. Although existing research provides implications for implementing EBIs in continuing care, few direct implementation trials have been conducted. This literature indicates that EBIs in continuing care have been success...

A guiding framework and approach for implementation research in substance use disorders treatment.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

This paper introduces readers to the concepts of implementation science, implementation theory, and implementation frameworks and models. A wide range of models has been published in the literature related to implementation. The paper will present an overview of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), which is a comprehensive typology that unifies and consolidates the array of constructs that influence implementation from the perspective of these models. The CFIR is then used to evaluate implementation models used in studies of substance use disorder (SUD) treatments. Implementation research is scarce, with few prospective studies of theory-driven implementation. We assert that future research in SUD needs to meet three overarching objectives to promote wider impleme...

Agreement between prospective interactive voice response telephone reporting and structured recall reports of risk behaviors in rural substance users living with HIV/AIDS.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

This study evaluated the feasibility and data quality of an IVR telephone reporting system with rural substance users living with HIV/AIDS. Community-dwelling patients were recruited from a nonprofit HIV medical clinic in rural Alabama (N = 35 men, 19 women). Participants engaged in daily IVR reporting of substance use and sexual practices for up to 10 weeks. IVR reports were compared with retrospective Timeline Followback (TLFB) interview reports for the same period. IVR and TLFB reports showed good to excellent agreement for summary measures of alcohol consumption and sexual activity. Agreements for illicit drug use reports were less satisfactory. Reports of monetary spending on alcohol and drugs were significantly higher on the IVR. Most individuals showed good agreements for reports of...

Drinking outcomes following drink refusal skills training: Differential effects for African American and non-Hispanic White clients.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Determining whether a particular treatment works for specific groups of people can help tailor dissemination of evidence-based alcohol treatments. It has been proposed that individuals from different racial groups might have better outcomes in treatments that are sensitive to sociocultural issues that impact alcohol use among these groups. The current study was a secondary analysis of data from the combined behavioral intervention (CBI) condition of the COMBINE study. Those randomly assigned to CBI (n = 776) had the opportunity to receive up to 9 skills training modules, which were chosen by the therapist. The goal of the current study was to determine whether receiving 1 of the CBI modules, drink refusal and social pressure skills training, predicted differential outcomes among African Am...

Measuring university students' self-efficacy to use drinking self-control strategies.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Using a Web-based, self-administered questionnaire, we assessed 498 university-student drinkers' self-efficacy to use 31 different behavioral strategies to reduce excessive drinking in each of three different locations (bar, party, own dorm/apartment). Averaging all 31 items within each drinking situation to create a single scale score revealed high internal consistency reliabilities and moderate inter-item correlations. Testing the association of self-efficacy with drinking location, sex, and frequency of recent binge drinking, we found that respondents reported higher self-efficacy to use these strategies when drinking in their own dorm/apartment than when drinking in bars and at parties; women reported higher mean self-efficacy than men; and drinkers who engaged in 3-or-more binges in t...

Gender and racial differences in treatment process and outcome among participants in the adolescent community reinforcement approach.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

This study examined whether initiation, engagement, dosage, treatment satisfaction, or outcomes for adolescents who received the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) in a large implementation effort were equivalent by gender or racial group. Analyses of data from 2,141 adolescents representing 33 sites across the United States revealed no significant differences for initiation, engagement, or retention by gender or race. Ninety-six percent of the sample reported being satisfied with treatment; however, male adolescents had significantly higher rates of treatment satisfaction than female adolescents, and African American adolescents had significantly higher rates of treatment satisfaction than Caucasian adolescents. A subset of the initial sample (n = 1,819) was used to inves...

Changes in neuropsychological functioning over 10 years following adolescent substance abuse treatment.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Previously, Anderson, Ramo, Cummins, and Brown (2010) described six distinct patterns of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use during the decade following adolescents' treatment for alcohol and other substance use disorders (A/SUD). This time period represents a phase of significant neurodevelopment, and the influence of substance use on the brain is a concern. In the present study, we examined patterns of neuropsychological function over these 10 years in relation to the AOD trajectories identified for youth as they transition into their twenties. Participants were part of a longitudinal research project following adolescents with and without A/SUD who received neuropsychological examinations at baseline and up to 7 times thereafter spanning 10 years (N = 213; 46% female at baseline). Neuropsy...

Sex, temperament, and family context: How the interaction of early factors differentially predict adolescent alcohol use and are mediated by proximal adolescent factors.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Adolescent alcohol use is common and has serious immediate and long-term ramifications. While concurrent individual and context factors are robustly associated with adolescent alcohol use, the influence of early childhood factors, particularly in interaction with child sex, are less clear. Using a prospective community sample of 362 (190 girls), this study investigated sex differences in the joint influence of distal childhood and proximal adolescent factors on Grade 10 alcohol use. All risk factors and two-way early individual-by-context interactions, and interactions of each of these with child sex, were entered into the initial regression. Significant sex interactions prompted the use of separate models for girls and boys. In addition to the identification of early (family socioeconomic...

Age-related changes in reasons for using alcohol and marijuana from ages 18 to 30 in a national sample.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100

This study used up to seven waves of data from 32 consecutive cohorts of participants in the national longitudinal Monitoring the Future study to model changes in self-reported reasons for using alcohol and marijuana by age (18 to 30), gender, and recent substance use. The majority of stated reasons for use decreased in prevalence across young adulthood (e.g., social/recreational and coping with negative affect reasons); exceptions included age-related increases in using to relax (alcohol and marijuana), to sleep (alcohol), because it tastes good (alcohol), and to get high (marijuana). Women were more likely than men to report drinking for reasons involving distress (i.e., to get away from problems), while men were more likely than women to endorse all other reasons. Greater substance use ...

Childhood ADHD symptoms and risk for cigarette smoking during adolescence: School adjustment as a potential mediator.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Although a large body of research suggests that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for cigarette smoking during adolescence compared with their non-ADHD peers, much less research has examined why. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by examining middle school adjustment, broadly defined, as a possible mediator of the relation between childhood ADHD symptoms and cigarette smoking during middle adolescence (10th grade). Longitudinal data were collected from a community sample of 754 youth using self-report and parent report along with school records, and a novel statistical technique was used in the process of testing for mediation. Consistent with hypotheses, school adjustment was found to mediate the relation between child...

Cannabis use among military veterans after residential treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:00:00 +0100

The present investigation prospectively evaluated whether treatment changes in PTSD symptom severity, among military Veterans in residential PTSD treatment, were related to cannabis use 4 months after discharge from residential rehabilitation. The sample was comprised of 432 male military Veteran patients (Mage = 51.06 years, SD = 4.17), who had a primary diagnosis of PTSD and were admitted to a VA residential rehabilitation program for PTSD. Results demonstrated that lower levels of change in PCL-M scores between treatment intake and discharge were significantly predictive of greater frequency of cannabis use at 4-month follow-up (p < .05), even after accounting for the effects of length of treatment stay and frequency of cannabis use during the 2 months before treatment intake. Furthermo...

Community reinforcement approach plus vouchers among cocaine-dependent outpatients: Twelve-month outcomes.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The aims of this study were to assess the effectiveness of the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) plus vouchers treatment in a cohort of Spanish cocaine-dependent outpatients, and to examine the maintenance of treatment effects after the voucher intervention was discontinued. Sixty-four adult outpatients were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions, CRA plus vouchers or standard care. The vouchers program was implemented from weeks 1 to 24. Among patients assigned to the CRA plus vouchers condition, 65.5% completed 12 months of treatment versus 28.6% of those assigned to the standard care condition (p = .003). At the 12-month assessment, 58.6% of patients assigned to the CRA plus vouchers condition were abstinent, compared with 25.7% in the standard care condition (p = .00...

Development of a decisional balance scale for young adult marijuana use.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

This study describes the development and validation of a decisional balance scale for marijuana use in young adults. Scale development was accomplished in four phases. First, 53 participants (70% female, 68% freshman) provided qualitative data that yielded content for an initial set of 47 items. In the second phase, an exploratory factor analysis on the responses of 260 participants (52% female, 68% freshman) revealed two factors, corresponding to pros and cons. Items that did not load well on the factors were omitted, resulting in a reduced set of 36 items. In the third phase, 182 participants (49% female, 37% freshmen) completed the revised scale and an evaluation of factor structure led to scale revisions and model respecification to create a good-fitting model. The final scales consist...

Predicting early gambling in children.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

This large population-based study (N = 1,125) examined whether low inhibition (i.e., low anxiety) predicted early gambling, above and beyond disinhibition (i.e., impulsivity) and whether the two personal dispositions operated independently or interactively. It also examined whether the predictive role of these personal dispositions towards early gambling depended on parent gambling. Children's personal dispositions were assessed at ages 6, 7, and 8 years through teacher ratings. Parent gambling participation and gambling problems were assessed when the children were 8 years old. Finally, children's early gambling was measured through self-reports when the children were 10 years old. Results showed that teacher-rated impulsivity predicted early gambling for both genders. In addition, low an...

Gambling among Minnesota public school students from 1992 to 2007: Declines in youth gambling.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The specific aims of this study are twofold. First, measure 2007 rates of gambling and underage gambling among public school students. Second, compare rates of gambling, frequent gambling, and underage gambling from 1992 to 2007. The 2007 sample includes 40,605 male and 42,655 female Minnesota public school students enrolled in the 9th and 12th grades and similar sample sizes from 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2004. Students were administered the Minnesota Student Survey, a 126-item, anonymous, self-administered, paper-and-pencil questionnaire that inquires about multiple health-related content domains, including gambling behavior. In 2007, most students gambled at least once during the past year, however, most did not gamble frequently. Gambling participation has shown a gradual and consist...

Accuracy and bias in adolescents' perceptions of friends' substance use.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

This study tested competing hypotheses related to the false consensus effect and pluralistic ignorance by examining the accuracy and bias of adolescents' perceptions of peer substance use and the effects of their own substance use, gender, and age on perceptions of peer behavior. Two samples (ns = 163 and 2,194) that collected data on peer nominations, perceptions of peer substance use, and self-reports of substance use were used in analyses. Results from both samples provided evidence supporting the false consensus effect, that is, adolescents' reports of their friends' substance use were biased in the direction of their own use. Users and nonusers did not differ in accuracy of perceptions; however, across all substances and samples, they differed significantly in bias. Substance users di...

Age of onset of first alcohol intoxication and subsequent alcohol use among urban American Indian adolescents.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The objective was to assess the effect of early onset intoxication on subsequent alcohol involvement among urban American Indian youth. The data come from the American Indian Research (AIR) project, a panel study of urban Indian youth residing in King County, Washington. Data were collected annually from the adolescent and his/her primary caregiver from the 1988–89 school year to the 1996–97 school year, providing a total of nine waves of data. Early intoxication (by age 14) was related to delinquency, family history of alcohol abuse or dependence, poverty, broken family structure, less family cohesiveness, and more family conflict. The effects of these characteristics were, therefore, partialed out in testing effects of early intoxication on later alcohol involvement. Two-part latent ...

Hazardous alcohol use among active duty Air Force personnel: Identifying unique risk and promotive factors.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Hazardous drinking is a significant public health concern and an important target for prevention efforts within both military and civilian populations. For such efforts to be maximally effective, comprehensive information regarding factors that increase or decrease risk for hazardous drinking is necessary. This is the first study to investigate risk and promotive factors across individual, family, community, and organizational levels in a representative sample of Air Force personnel (N = 52,780). Unique predictors of men's and women's hazardous drinking were identified both within and across ecological levels. Predictors that accounted for the most variance in predicting hazardous versus non-hazardous drinkers included family income, number of children, depressive symptoms, religious invol...

Changes in self-control problems and attention problems during middle school predict alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use during high school.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Although deficits in impulse control have been linked to adolescent use of alcohol and illicit drugs, less attention has been given to variability in change in impulse control across adolescence and whether this variability may be a signal of risk for early substance use. The goals of the current study were to examine growth in two aspects of impulse control, self-control problems and attention problems, across middle adolescence, and to test the prospective effects of level and change in these variables on levels and change over time in substance use. Data are from a community sample of 955 adolescents interviewed (along with their parents and teachers) annually from 6th to 11th grade. Results indicated that greater self-control problems and attentional problems in the 6th grade and incre...

An examination of college students' willingness to experience consequences as a unique predictor of alcohol problems.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The focus of the study was to examine (1) the unique variance between willingness to experience specific consequences (e.g., vomit) and reported experience of the consequence after controlling for drinking, and (2) the relationships between consequence specific constructs (attitudes and norms) and willingness to experience specific consequences in the context of a structural equation model. Freshmen students (n = 167) from a large northeastern university were randomly selected to participate. Results indicated willingness to experience consequences accounted for significant variance across consequence outcomes controlling for drinking. Significant relationships were observed between consequence specific constructs (attitudes and norms) and students' willingness to experience consequences. ...

How many versus how much: 52 weeks of alcohol consumption in emerging adults.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

In previous research using timeline follow-back methods to closely monitor drinking and related variables over the first year of college (9 months), we showed that drinking varied considerably over time in accord with academic requirements and holidays. In a new community sample (N = 576) of emerging adults (18- and 19-year-olds who reported having begun drinking prior to recruitment), we used similar methods to compare drinking patterns in college and noncollege individuals over a full calendar year (including summer). To reduce the extreme distortion in computations of average drinking over restricted time spans (i.e., 1 week) that arise because large numbers of even regular drinkers may not consume any alcohol, we analyzed data using recently developed two-part latent growth curve model...

Lower task persistence in smokers with schizophrenia as compared to non-psychiatric control smokers.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

One contributing factor to difficulty in quitting smoking may be task persistence, which can be viewed as a behavioral manifestation of distress tolerance, and describes the act of persisting in a difficult or effortful task. Task persistence was assessed in smokers with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (SZ/SA; N = 71) and non-psychiatric controls (N = 78) before a quit attempt. These data support the hypothesis that smokers with SZ/SA display less task persistence than do non-psychiatric controls when persistence is measured via mirror tracing and a 2-item persistence measure. Lower persistence may partially explain the reduced smoking cessation successes of smokers with SZ/SA as compared to the general population. These data also replicate findings regarding relationships betwe...

Drug use during pregnancy: Validating the Drug Abuse Screening Test against physiological measures.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

This study examined the ability of the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10) to identify prenatal drug use using hair and urine samples as criterion variables. In addition, this study was the first to use “best practices,” such as anonymity, ACASI technology, and a written screener, to facilitate disclosure in this vulnerable population. 300 low-income, post-partum women (90.3% African-American) were recruited from their hospital rooms after giving birth. Participation involved (a) completing a computerized assessment battery that contained the DAST-10 and (b) providing urine and hair samples. Twenty-four percent of the sample had a positive drug screen. The sensitivity of the DAST-10 was only .47. Nineteen percent of the sample had a positive toxicology screen but denied drug use on the...

The effect of marriage on young adult heavy drinking and its mediators: Results from two methods of adjusting for selection into marriage.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

This study tested the effect of marriage on young adult heavy drinking and tested whether this effect was mediated by involvement in social activities, religiosity, and self-control reasons for limiting drinking. The sample of 508 young adults was taken from an ongoing longitudinal study of familial alcoholism that over-sampled children of alcoholics (Chassin, Rogosch, & Barrera, 1991). In order to distinguish role socialization effects of marriage from confounding effects of role selection into marriage, analyses used both the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) method and the change score method of adjusting for pre-marriage levels of heavy drinking and the mediators. Results showed role socialization effects of marriage on post-marriage declines in heavy drinking. This effect was mediated b...

Coping strategy use following computerized cognitive-behavioral therapy for substance use disorders.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Coping strategies are emerging as a predictor of treatment outcome for substance users and may be particularly important among computerized and self-change approaches. We used data from a randomized clinical trial of a computer-based version of cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT4CBT) to: (1) examine the association between observer ratings of coping skills and self-reported coping strategies; (2) evaluate whether participants assigned to the CBT4CBT program reported greater use of coping strategies compared with those not exposed to the program; and (3) examine the differential effect of coping strategies by treatment group on drug-related outcomes. Individuals (N = 77) seeking treatment for substance dependence at a community-based outpatient substance abuse treatment facility were recru...

Implicit and explicit attitudes predict smoking cessation: Moderating effects of experienced failure to control smoking and plans to quit.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The current study tested implicit and explicit attitudes as prospective predictors of smoking cessation in a Midwestern community sample of smokers. Results showed that the effects of attitudes significantly varied with levels of experienced failure to control smoking and plans to quit. Explicit attitudes significantly predicted later cessation among those with low (but not high or average) levels of experienced failure to control smoking. Conversely, however, implicit attitudes significantly predicted later cessation among those with high levels of experienced failure to control smoking, but only if they had a plan to quit. Because smoking cessation involves both controlled and automatic processes, interventions may need to consider attitude change interventions that focus on both implici...

Media as social influence: Racial differences in the effects of peers and media on adolescent alcohol cognitions and consumption.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Racial differences in the effects of peer and media influence on adolescents' alcohol cognitions and consumption were examined in a large-scale panel study. With regard to peer influence, results from cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that the relation between perceived peer drinking and own drinking was significant for both Black and White adolescents, but it was stronger for the White adolescents. With regard to media influence, structural modeling analyses indicated that exposure to drinking in movies was associated with more alcohol consumption 8 months and 16 months later. These effects were mediated by increases in the favorability of the adolescents' drinker prototypes, their willingness to drink, and their tendency to affiliate with friends who were drinking. Multiple group ana...

Drinking behaviors in social situations account for alcohol-related problems among socially anxious individuals.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Individuals with elevated social anxiety appear particularly vulnerable to experiencing alcohol-related problems. However, research has thus far failed to identify factors that seem to account for this relationship. The present study utilized a measure designed to assess alcohol-related behaviors related to social situations previously identified as anxiety-provoking among those with elevated social anxiety. The Drinking to Cope with Social Anxiety Scale (DCSAS) assessed alcohol-related behaviors in 24 social situations and was comprised of two subscales: Drinking to Cope in Social Situations and Avoidance of Social Situations if Alcohol was Unavailable. Both DCSAS scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency and were significantly, positively related to number of alcohol-related prob...

Computerized versus motivational interviewing alcohol interventions: Impact on discrepancy, motivation, and drinking.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The authors conducted two randomized clinical trials with ethnically diverse samples of college student drinkers in order to determine (a) the relative efficacy of two popular computerized interventions versus a more comprehensive motivational interview approach (BASICS) and (b) the mechanisms of change associated with these interventions. In Study 1, heavy drinking participants recruited from a student health center (N = 74, 59% women, 23% African American) were randomly assigned to receive BASICS or the Alcohol 101 CD-ROM program. BASICS was associated with greater post-session motivation to change and self-ideal and normative discrepancy relative to Alcohol 101, but there were no group differences in the primary drinking outcomes at 1-month follow-up. Pre to post session increases in mo...

Measuring mindfulness and examining its relationship with alcohol use and negative consequences.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Mindfulness has been proposed as a useful adjunct to alcohol abuse treatment. However, very little research has examined the basic relationship between alcohol use and mindfulness. Inconsistency in definition and measurement of mindfulness across studies makes such research difficult to interpret and conduct. Therefore, the current research sought to validate an emerging mindfulness measure, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and examine its relationship with alcohol use and alcohol-related negative consequences among a sample of 316 college-aged adults. The purported factor structure of the FFMQ was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to examine relations among mindfulness, alcohol use, and alcohol-related negative consequences....

Improving the effectiveness of computer-delivered personalized drinking feedback interventions for college students.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

This study evaluated methods of enhancing college students' retention of information provided to them in a computer-delivered personalized drinking feedback intervention and whether enhanced retention reduced alcohol consumption during the two-week period following the intervention. Participants were 98 college students who reported at least one heavy drinking episode in the past two weeks. After participating in an online, personalized drinking feedback intervention, students were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: 1) typical, in which they were simply sent home, 2) reading, in which they were asked to spend the next 20 minutes re-reading the feedback, and 3) recall, in which they were asked to spend the next 20 minutes writing down as much of the information from ...

Comparison of participatively set and assigned goals in the reduction of alcohol use.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The effects of setting goals on goal commitment, self-efficacy for goal achievement, and goal achievement in the context of an alcohol use intervention were examined using an experimental design in which participants were randomized to participatively set goals, assigned goals, and no goal conditions. One hundred and twenty-six heavy-drinking college students received a single cognitive-behavioral assessment/intervention session and completed measures of goal commitment, self-efficacy for goal achievement, and alcohol use. Results were consistent with, and expanded upon, previous research by demonstrating that having a goal for limiting alcohol consumption was predictive of lower quantity and frequency of alcohol use relative to not having a goal. Participation in goal setting yielded grea...

Help-seeking for alcohol-related problems in college students: Correlates and preferred resources.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Despite the development of a variety of efficacious alcohol intervention approaches for college students, few student drinkers seek help. The present study assessed students' history of help-seeking for alcohol problems, as well as their estimates of how likely they would be to use various help-seeking resources, should they wish to change their drinking. Participants were 197 college students who reported recent heavy drinking (46% male, 68.5% White, 27.4% African-American). Participants completed measures related to their drinking and their use (both past use and likelihood of future use) of 14 different alcohol help-seeking options. Repeated-measures analyses of variance revealed that students preferred informal help-seeking (e.g., talking to friends and family) over formal (e.g., talki...

Alcohol-involved sexual risk behavior among heavy drinkers living with HIV/AIDS: Negative affect, self-efficacy, and sexual craving.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Evidence of the effects of negative affect (NA) and sexual craving on unprotected sexual activity remains scant. We hypothesized that NA and sexual craving modify the same day association between low self-efficacy to use condoms and unprotected anal or vaginal sex, and the same-day association between alcohol use during the 3 hours prior to sexual activity and unprotected sex. We used an electronic daily diary, drawing on a sample of 125 men and women recruited from an agency serving economically disadvantaged persons living with HIV/AIDS. Casual or steady partner type designation and perceived partner HIV serostatus were also examined. Findings support the hypothesized moderating effects of high NA and sexual craving on the association between low self-efficacy and unprotected sex, and th...

Factor structure of a Korean-language version of the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES) in a clinical sample of clients with alcohol dependence.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES) is an instrument used to measure the level of motivation in regards to changing drinking and other addictive behaviors. While some initial factor analysis studies on the SOCRATES described a three-factor orthogonal structure of the scale, some other studies found a two-factor correlated structure. Therefore, the primary objective of the present study was to test the validity of the Korean language version of the instrument using a Korean population. The study examined the factor structure of the Korean version of the SOCRATES with clinical samples consisting of 219 inpatients and 271 outpatients with alcohol dependency. An exploratory factor analysis with an alpha factoring method revealed a three-factor correlated str...

Social connections and suicidal thoughts and behavior.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Disrupted social connectedness is associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors among individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs). The current study sought to further characterize this relationship by examining several indices of social connectedness—(a) living alone, (b) perceived social support, (c) interpersonal conflict, and (d) belongingness. Participants (n = 814) were recruited from 4 residential substance-use treatment programs and completed self-report measures of social connectedness as well as whether they had ever thought about or attempted suicide. Multivariate results indicated that interpersonal conflict and belongingness were significant predictors of a history of suicidal ideation, and that belongingness, perceived social support, and living alone were significant ...

Cue reactivity in cannabis-dependent adolescents.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The authors measured event-related potentials with a craving manipulation to investigate the neural correlates of drug cue reactivity in 13 adolescents who are cannabis dependent (CD; ages 14–17). The P300 responses to marijuana (MJ) pictures (MJ-P300) and control pictures (C-P300) were assessed after handling neutral objects and again after handling MJ paraphernalia (MJP). Self-reported drug craving and heart rates also were measured. MJ-P300 were larger than C-P300 (p p = .002 and p = .003, respectively), with no association between the magnitude of craving and MJ-P300. Heart rates were not affected by handling MJP. The results showed that adolescents who are CD have an attentional bias to MJ stimuli that increases after handling marijuana paraphernalia. Generally, the results are cons...

The effect of drink price and next-day responsibilities on college student drinking: A behavioral economic analysis.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100

This study systematically examines the role of these variables by using hypothetical alcohol purchase tasks to analyze alcohol consumption and expenditures among college students who reported recent heavy drinking (N = 207, 53.1% women). The impact of gender and the personality risk factor sensation seeking (SS) were also assessed. Students were asked how many drinks they would purchase and consume across 17 drink prices and 3 next-day responsibility scenarios. Mean levels of hypothetical consumption were highly sensitive to both drink price and next-day responsibility, with the lowest drinking levels associated with high drink prices and a next-day test. Men and participants with greater levels of SS reported more demand overall (greater consumption and expenditures) than women and studen...

What explains the relationship between the therapist structure × patient reactance interaction and drinking outcome? An examination of potential mediators.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Recent research found that among patients in aftercare treatment for alcoholism the level of therapist structure interacted with the level of patients' interpersonal reactance to predict alcohol use outcomes. The present study examined two sets of potential mediators of this interaction effect among a sample from two aftercare sites of Project MATCH (n = 127). The mediator constructs were types of pro-recovery change talk and resistance to therapeutic work. Dependent variables were percentage of days abstinent (PDA) and percentage of heavy drinking days (PHDD) across the year after treatment. Multiple-mediator models using bootstrapped estimates of indirect effects were used to test for mediation. Results indicated that the 'taking steps' aspect of change talk partially mediated the Struct...

The association between childhood maltreatment and gambling problems in a community sample of adult men and women.