University of Alabama School of Social Work, Tuscaloosa, 35487-0314, United States.
Addict Behav. 2011 Nov;36(11):1068-75. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2011.06.014. Epub 2011 Jun 25.
Alcohol and cigarette smoking frequently co-occur among adults in the U.S., resulting in a myriad of deleterious health outcomes. Cue reactivity has been posited as one factor that precludes individuals from overcoming alcohol and nicotine dependency. While cue reactivity studies have focused on the impact of proximal cues on cue reactivity, much less is known about the unique impact of complex and contextual cues. This pilot study compares nicotine and alcohol cue reactivity among a sample of nicotine dependent, daily drinkers (N=21) across neutral, party, and office courtyard virtual reality (VR) contexts embedded with proximal smoking cues to: 1) explore and compare the effects of complex nicotine cues on alcohol cross-cue reactivity between nicotine/alcohol dependent drinkers and nicotine dependent/non-alcohol dependent daily drinkers, and 2) assess the effectiveness of VR for eliciting cue-induced nicotine craving responses using complex nicotine cues. Nicotine dependent/non-alcohol dependent drinkers had significantly lower craving for alcohol in the non-alcohol congruent office courtyard VR scene and there was no difference in the alcohol-congruent party scene when compared to the alcohol dependent group, suggesting that the non-alcohol dependent daily drinking group was more likely to react to contextual cues. Consistent with prior cue reactivity studies, dependent smokers experienced significantly higher craving for nicotine in the VR smoking congruent contexts compared to the neutral contexts; however, nicotine/alcohol dependent participants did not return to baseline craving after exposure to smoking cues. These results suggest substantive differences in the ways that nicotine-dependent, daily alcohol drinkers and nicotine/alcohol dependent drinkers experience craving, whether cross-cue or traditional.
在美国，成年人中经常同时存在酒精和香烟的使用，导致了无数有害的健康后果。线索反应性被认为是一个因素，阻止个人克服酒精和尼古丁依赖。虽然线索反应性研究集中在近端线索对线索反应性的影响上，但对于复杂和上下文线索的独特影响知之甚少。这项初步研究比较了尼古丁依赖的每日饮酒者（N=21）在中性、派对和办公室庭院虚拟现实（VR）环境中对尼古丁和酒精线索的反应性，这些环境中嵌入了近端吸烟线索，以：1）探索和比较复杂尼古丁线索对尼古丁/酒精依赖饮酒者和尼古丁依赖/非酒精依赖每日饮酒者之间酒精交叉线索反应性的影响，2）评估 VR 对使用复杂尼古丁线索诱发线索引起的尼古丁渴望反应的有效性。与酒精依赖组相比，尼古丁依赖/非酒精依赖饮酒者在非酒精一致的办公室庭院 VR 场景中对酒精的渴望明显较低，而在酒精一致的派对场景中则没有差异，这表明非酒精依赖的每日饮酒者更有可能对环境线索做出反应。与先前的线索反应性研究一致，依赖吸烟者在 VR 吸烟一致的环境中对尼古丁的渴望明显高于中性环境；然而，尼古丁/酒精依赖的参与者在暴露于吸烟线索后并没有回到基线渴望水平。这些结果表明，尼古丁依赖的、每日饮酒的人和尼古丁/酒精依赖的饮酒者在经历渴望时存在实质性的差异，无论是交叉线索还是传统的。
