Alcohol-Related Interpretation Bias in Alcohol-Dependent Patients

Alcohol-Related Interpretation Bias in Alcohol-Dependent Patients

Background Models of addictive behaviors postulate that implicit alcohol‐related memory associations and biased interpretation processes contribute to the development and maintenance of alcohol misuse and abuse. The present study examined whether alcohol‐dependent patients (AP) show an alcohol‐relat...

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Published in:Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 1151 - 1159
Main Authors: Woud, Marcella L., Pawelczak, Steffen, Rinck, Mike, Lindenmeyer, Johannes, Souren, Pierre, Wiers, Reinout W., Becker, Eni S.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-04-2014
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Adult
Alcohol
Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test
Alcohol-Dependent Patients
Alcohol-Related Interpretation Bias
Alcoholism - diagnosis
Alcoholism - epidemiology
Alcoholism - psychology
Bias
Female
Humans
Implicit Memory Associations
Male
Middle Aged
Self Report - standards
Implicit Memory Associations
Alcohol-Dependent Patients
Alcohol-Related Interpretation Bias
Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test
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Summary:Background Models of addictive behaviors postulate that implicit alcohol‐related memory associations and biased interpretation processes contribute to the development and maintenance of alcohol misuse and abuse. The present study examined whether alcohol‐dependent patients (AP) show an alcohol‐related interpretation bias. Second, the relationship between the interpretation bias and levels of harmful drinking was investigated. Methods The sample included 125 clinically diagnosed AP and 69 clinically diagnosed control patients (CP) who had either a mood or an anxiety disorder. Participants completed a booklet containing 12 open‐ended ambiguous scenarios. Seven scenarios were alcohol‐relevant, and 5 were emotionally relevant, that is, panic‐ or depression‐relevant. Participants were asked to read each scenario and to generate a continuation. In addition, the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and Beck Depression Inventory were administered. Results Logistic multivariate multilevel analyses revealed that AP’ probability of generating an alcohol‐related continuation on all 3 scenario types was higher than that of CP. Moreover, alcohol‐related interpretation biases were positively associated with levels of harmful drinking (i.e., AUDIT scores). Conclusions These findings are the first to show that AP show an alcohol‐related interpretation bias, which generalizes to other ambiguous emotionally relevant contexts, and therefore advance our understanding of the role of implicit biased alcohol‐related memory associations and interpretation processes.
Bibliography:istex:D3620E7F9912DC19605810F0435196D3E486C6E8
Behavioural Science Institute of the Radboud University Nijmegen
Vici - No. 453-08-001
ArticleID:ACER12334
ark:/67375/WNG-HQ8KL4S3-C
Salus Clinic Lindow
Netherlands Science Foundation
ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-News-1
ObjectType-Feature-3
content type line 23
ISSN:0145-6008
1530-0277
DOI:10.1111/acer.12334