Anhedonia and impulsivity in college alcohol use: A path analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol use is a substantial problem among college students and has several negative consequences. The current study examined the associations between anhedonia and alcohol use and related problems via impulsive behavior (e.g., negative urgency, sensation seeking). We parsed anhedonia into four specific facets: consummatory, anticipatory, recreational, and social anhedonia. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred and forty college students aged 18-25 were included in the final analysis. METHOD: Data were collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Self-report inventories assessing for anhedonia, alcohol use, impulsive behavior, and depressed mood were utilized. RESULTS: Recreational consummatory anhedonia was negatively associated with alcohol use and alcohol-related problems through negative urgency. Recreational consummatory anhedonia also had significant negative associations with alcohol consumption via sensation seeking. Further, social anticipatory anhedonia was positively associated with alcohol use and related problems via negative urgency. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights important associations between anhedonia, impulsivity, and alcohol use and related problems.

Reinforcement sensitivity and bulimia symptoms: the role of emotion regulation.

OBJECTIVE: Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) provides a theoretical foundation associated with various approach and avoidance behaviors and individual personality differences. Sensitivity to reward and punishment, two neural systems within the RST have been significantly associated with bingeing and purging behaviors. However, inconsistent findings are observed and specific factors mediating these relationships are not well understood. Deficits in emotion regulation may account for these relationships, as both negative urgency and distress tolerance have been independently associated with bulimia behaviors. Thus, this is an area that requires further investigation. METHOD: The current study utilized various self-report inventories, including the Eating Disorder Inventory-3rd Edition to measure bulimia symptoms, as well as measures of negative affect, sensitivity to reward and punishment, distress tolerance, and negative urgency. These measures were used to assess whether distress tolerance and negative urgency mediated associations between sensitivity to reward and punishment and bulimia symptoms in a community sample of 394 young adults ranging from the ages of 18 to 25. RESULTS: As expected, sensitivity to reward and punishment were significantly associated with decreased distress tolerance. Distress tolerance was also directly associated with greater negative urgency, which was significantly associated with increased bulimia symptoms. Consistent with hypotheses, indirect associations between sensitivity to reward and sensitivity to punishment to bulimia symptoms via distress tolerance and negative urgency were observed, controlling for gender and negative affect. DISCUSSION: Results contribute to understanding specific contributions of risk factors within the relationship of sensitivity to reward and punishment and bulimia symptoms, measured by the EDI-3. Novel to existing literature, results indicate that reinforcement sensitivity significantly contributes to emotion regulation deficits. Thus, these findings may have important implications for understanding the development and treatment of bulimia symptoms. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, based on descriptive, cross-sectional data.

Using pharmacological manipulations to study the role of dopamine in human reward functioning: A review of studies in healthy adults.

Dopamine (DA) plays a key role in reward processing and is implicated in psychological disorders such as depression, substance use, and schizophrenia. The role of DA in reward processing is an area of highly active research. One approach to this question is drug challenge studies with drugs known to alter DA function. These studies provide good experimental control and can be performed in parallel in laboratory animals and humans. This review aimed to summarize results of studies using pharmacological manipulations of DA in healthy adults. 'Reward' is a complex process, so we separated 'phases' of reward, including anticipation, evaluation of cost and benefits of upcoming reward, execution of actions to obtain reward, pleasure in response to receiving a reward, and reward learning. Results indicated that i) DAergic drugs have different effects on different phases of reward; ii) the relationship between DA and reward functioning appears unlikely to be linear; iii) our ability to detect the effects of DAergic drugs varies depending on whether subjective, behavioral, imaging measures are used.

Plasma pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines may relate to cocaine use, cognitive functioning, and depressive symptoms in cocaine use disorder.

BACKGROUND: Inflammation is implicated in cocaine use and associated problems, including depression and cognitive impairment. OBJECTIVE: We assessed 18 cytokines, cocaine use, cognition, and depression in individuals with Cocaine Use Disorder. Our general hypothesis was that higher pro-inflammatory cytokines would relate to more cocaine use, poorer cognition, and more depression, while higher anti-inflammatory cytokines would relate to less cocaine use, better cognition, and less depression. METHODS: Data were collected from 85 individuals (76.5% male, 80% African American) aged 18-65. The ASI, Shipley-2, and BDI-II assessed frequency and duration of cocaine use, cognition, and depression. Cytokines were tested using Bio-Plex Pro™ assays. Elastic net regression identified which cytokines related to each measure, controlling for confounds. RESULTS: Lower IL-29 (B = -0.08, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-0.24,0.07]), scD163 (B = -0.11, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-0.27,0.04]), Eotaxin-1 CCL11 (B = -0.11, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-0.30,0.08]), and higher APRIL/TNFSF13 (B = 0.11, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-0.08,0.30]) related to more frequent cocaine use. Lower IL-29 (B = -0.24, bootstrapped 95% CI = [-2.26,1.79]) and IL-20 (B = -1.62, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-3.53,0.29]) related to longer duration of cocaine use. Higher Eotaxin-2 CCL24 (B = 2.79, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-0.59,6.17]) and TWEAK (B = 2.83, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-0.80,6.45]) related to better cognition. Finally, higher IL-20 (B = -1.83, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-3.70,0.04]) and Osteocalcin (B = -1.56, bootstrapped 95%CI = [-3.81,0.70]) related to lower depressive symptoms. However, none of these relationships survived bootstrapped analyses. CONCLUSION: Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines may relate to cocaine use, cognition, and depression, but inconsistent with our hypotheses, higher pro-inflammatory cytokines related to better functioning in several domains. Additionally, cytokines were selected at low frequencies and demonstrated weak relationships with outcomes. These preliminary findings suggest complex relationships between inflammation and cocaine use.