Links between psychopathological symptoms and cortical thickness in men with severe alcohol use disorder: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging study.

BACKGROUND: Anxiety and depression are psychopathological states frequently co-occurring with severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD). These symptoms generally disappear with abstinence but may persist in some patients, increasing the relapse risk. METHODS: The cerebral cortex thickness of 94 male patients with SAUD was correlated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, both measured at the end (2-3 weeks) of the detoxification treatment. Cortical measures were obtained using surface-based morphometry implemented with Freesurfer. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were associated with reduced cortical thickness in the superior temporal gyrus of the right hemisphere. Anxiety level was correlated with lower cortical thickness in the rostral middle frontal region, inferior temporal region, and supramarginal, postcentral, superior temporal, and transverse temporal regions of the left hemisphere, as well as with a large cluster in the middle temporal region of the right hemisphere. CONCLUSIONS: At the end of the detoxification stage, the intensity of depressive and anxiety symptoms is inversely associated with the cortical thickness of regions involved in emotions-related processes, and the persistence of the symptoms could be explained by these brain deficits.

Distress Response to the Failure to an Insoluble Anagrams Task: Maladaptive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Binge Drinking Students.

Background: Emotion regulation refers to the attempt to influence the latency, magnitude, and duration of an emotion, and to modify the experiential, behavioral, or physiological components of the emotional response. In situations of personal failure, individuals, and in particular those who present a tendency to self-focus, may experience intense emotional distress. Individuals who lack proper adaptive emotion regulation strategies may engage in activities leading to immediate pleasure, such as alcohol drinking, in order to escape the self-relevance of emotional experiences. This self-awareness theory of drinking has been shown explain relapses in self-focused alcohol-dependent individuals in situations of personal failure, after detoxification. Such relapses support the existence of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in alcohol dependence. As binge drinking may be considered as an early stage of alcohol-use-disorder, the aim of this study was to explore the relationship between emotional distress, self-regulation and self-consciousness in binge drinkers (BD). Methods: Fifty-five students (32 BD and 23 controls) completed different questionnaires related to the self (self-consciousness and self-regulation questionnaires) and were exposed to a situation of self-failure (insoluble anagrams). Results: The distress induced by the anagrams task was more related to self-blame, ruminations and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in BD than in controls. Emotional distress was related to less positive refocusing, refocusing on planning, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies among the control group with less public self-consciousness. Emotional distress was related to more positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, refocusing on planning, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies among control participants with higher public self-consciousness. Low self-conscious BD who experienced anagram distress used less acceptance and less refocusing on planning strategies. Conversely, high self-conscious BD used more refocusing on planning strategies when experiencing anagram distress. Conclusion: This study suggests a relationship between emotional distress and self-regulation, in BD only. Moreover, public self-consciousness appears to be a disposition that motivates non-BD to improve actions and attitudes to meet self-standards. Finally, this study suggests a minor role of self-consciousness in the relationship between self-regulation and emotional distress in BD. Finally, low private/public self-consciousness in the binge drinking group may also be related to more maladaptive emotion regulation strategies.

Binging at the campus: Motivations and impulsivity influence binge drinking profiles in university students.

This study explored the involvement of two key psychological factors, drinking motives and impulsivity traits, in binge drinking. On the basis of a large screening phase (N=4424), 867 binge drinkers were selected and were first compared with 924 non-binge drinkers. Then, a cluster analysis was performed, focusing on the binge drinker sample, to explore the respective involvement of four drinking motives (DMQ-R model) and four impulsivity facets (UPPS model) in this habit. Centrally, the cluster analysis identified three clusters of binge drinkers presenting distinct psychological characteristics and alcohol consumption patterns: emotional, recreational, and hazardous binge drinkers. Hazardous binge drinkers were characterized by strong drinking motives but moderate impulsivity. Binge drinking should thus no more be considered as a unitary drinking pattern but rather as a habit encompassing a variety of psychological profiles. Moreover, risky drinking habits in young people might be mainly related to disproportionate drinking motives. Future studies should thus consider binge drinking heterogeneity, and prevention programs focusing on drinking motivations should be developed.

Disease recognition is related to specific autobiographical memory deficits in alcohol-dependence.

The particularly high treatment gap in alcohol-dependence suggests the existence of important barriers to treatment decision and in particular difficulties in problem recognition. This study tested the relation between problem recognition and self-related memories. Forty-one recently detoxified alcohol-dependent individuals (AD) were compared to twenty alcoholic subjects that were abstinent for 6 months or more (recruited among alcoholics-anonymous (AA)), and to twenty controls on autobiographical memories elicited by pictures depicting or not alcohol using the autobiographical memory test. Autonoetic consciousness was measured with the Remember/Know paradigm. We tested whether memories performances were related with data obtained on the readiness to change questionnaire (RCQ) or with consciousness of the severity of drinking. AD subjects provided less specific memories than control and AA subjects, and fewer Remember responses than controls. The deficits in AD subjects were not specific for memories elicited by pictures depicting alcohol, suggesting a global deficit. Autobiographical memories specificity was negatively correlated to scores of consciousness of the severity of drinking but not to RCQ. Our results support potential recovery of autobiographical memory with abstinence. AD's deficits in autobiographical memory were related to capacities to recognize the severity and therefore may be a barrier to treatment decision.