Savoring Moderates the Link between Marijuana Use and Marijuana Problems.

Background: The changing legal landscape for marijuana requires concerted efforts toward minimizing the potential harms related to use of the plant. Purpose/Objectives: Identifying buffers against negative consequences in regular users could help researchers fashion prevention efforts that could appeal to those who are uninterested in messages related to abstinence. Savoring, a positively-focused, mindful approach to making the most of positive experiences, appears to overlap with facets of treatment that have proven successful with problem users. The present study examined the role of savoring in the development of marijuana-related problems. Methods: We examined the potential role of savoring as a buffer against marijuana problems in 195 participants (27.3% female). Results: Participants in this sample used cannabis 3.06 days per week on average. Correlations revealed that problems decreased as savoring increased. In addition, a significant interaction revealed that savoring moderated the impact of frequent use on problems. As savoring increased, the positive association between frequency of use and negative consequences decreased, suggesting that those who are high on savoring experience fewer negative consequences than those who are low on savoring even when they use marijuana as frequently. Conclusions: These data support the idea of incorporating savoring into the prevention of marijuana problems.

The effects of heroin administration and drug cues on impulsivity.

Drug addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and continued use despite negative consequences. Behavioral impulsivity is a strong predictor of the initiation and maintenance of drug addiction. Preclinical data suggest that heroin may exacerbate impulsive characteristics in an individual but this has yet to be assessed in clinical samples. The current secondary data analysis sought to investigate the effects of heroin on impulsivity along with the effects of exposure to drug cues. Using the current data set, we also tentatively assessed the etiological relationship between impulsivity and heroin abuse. Sixteen heroin-dependent participants were recruited to complete Immediate Memory Task/Delayed Memory Task (IMT/DMT) and GoStop tasks following repeated heroin administration, following acute heroin administration, and following a drug cue exposure session. Four preceding days of active heroin availability, compared to four preceding days of placebo drug availability, increased impulsivity assessed using the IMT and DMT. Presentation of drug cues similarly acted to increase impulsivity assessments on all three tasks. It also appears that heavier users were more susceptible to the influence of drug cues on impulsivity. The present study represents a step toward a more comprehensive understanding of the interaction between opioid abuse and impulsivity. A better understanding of these factors could provide critical insight into the maintenance of heroin use and relapse.

Searching for evidence of genetic mediation of opioid withdrawal by opioid receptor gene polymorphisms.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has identified many genetic polymorphisms that appear to mediate the effects of opioid drugs. However, the relationship between genetic polymorphisms and the severity of opioid withdrawal has not yet been characterized. METHODS: Data were collected from 48 daily heroin users who previously completed a standardized abstinence-induced or naloxone-precipitated withdrawal procedure to assess opioid dependence. The total withdrawal severity score (based on the COWS) from this procedure was correlated with genotype information for variants of OPRM1 (rs1799971; rs6848893), OPRD1 (rs10753331; rs2234918; rs581111; rs678849; rs1042114), and OPRK1 (rs6473797; rs963549). Genotype and other participant variables (age, race, sex, duration of drug use, concomitant drug use, route of opioid use) were used as predictors. RESULTS: Of these variables, those individually correlated with a p < .2 were entered into a multivariate regression in order to identify the most predictive model. Three polymorphisms were significantly associated with severity of abstinence-induced withdrawal (n = 19) in the bivariate analysis (R): OPRM1 rs6848893 (.45), OPRD1 rs10753331 (.03), and rs678849 (.08), but only the OPRM1 rs6848893 was retained in the multivariate model (p < .001). For participants who underwent naloxone-precipitated withdrawal (n = 29) only OPRK1 rs6473797 (-.23) was significant in the bivariate analysis, though not retained in the final model. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide evidence for genetic modulation of opioid withdrawal severity, and suggest there may be qualitative differences between withdrawal resulting from abstinence and antagonist-precipitated withdrawal. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: This study demonstrates the importance and feasibility of incorporating genetic information into clinical addiction research.