Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013 Jan 1;127(1-3):81-6. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.06.019. Epub 2012 Jul 7.
Prominent addiction models posit that automatically activated approach/avoidance tendencies play a critical role in addiction. Nevertheless, only a limited number of studies have actually documented the relationship between relapse and automatically activated approach/avoidance tendencies. We compared automatically activated approach/avoidance tendencies towards alcohol in 40 abstaining alcohol-dependent patients and 40 controls. We also examined whether individual differences in automatically activated approach/avoidance tendencies towards alcohol are predictive of relapse in patients.
A Relevant Stimulus Response Compatibility task was used to measure relative approach/avoidance tendencies. In one block of trials, participants were asked to approach alcohol-related pictures and to avoid alcohol-unrelated pictures (i.e., compatible block). In a second block of trials, participants were asked to approach alcohol-unrelated pictures and to move away from alcohol-related pictures (i.e., incompatible block). Patients were tested between 18 and 21 days after they quit drinking. Relapse was assessed 3 months after patients were discharged from the hospital.
Whereas abstaining alcohol-dependent patients were faster to respond to incompatible trials as compared to compatible trials, participants in the control group showed the exact opposite pattern. Within the patient group, the likelihood of relapse increased as participants were faster to respond to incompatible trials relative to compatible trials.
Unlike controls, abstaining alcohol-dependent patients revealed a relative avoidance bias rather than relative approach bias. Moreover, relapse rates were found to increase as the relative tendency to avoid alcohol increased. This finding suggests that an avoidance orientation towards alcohol can potentially be harmful in clinical samples.
突出的成瘾模型假设，自动激活的趋近/回避倾向在成瘾中起着关键作用。然而，只有少数研究实际上记录了复发与自动激活的趋近/回避倾向之间的关系。我们比较了 40 名戒断酒精依赖患者和 40 名对照者对酒精的自动激活趋近/回避倾向。我们还检查了对酒精的自动激活趋近/回避倾向的个体差异是否能预测患者的复发。
使用相关刺激反应相容任务来衡量相对趋近/回避倾向。在一组试验中，要求参与者接近与酒精相关的图片，避免与酒精无关的图片（即相容组）。在第二组试验中，要求参与者接近与酒精无关的图片，远离与酒精相关的图片（即不相容组）。患者在停止饮酒后 18-21 天接受测试。复发在患者出院 3 个月后进行评估。
与酒精依赖的戒断患者相比，参与者在不相容试验中比在相容试验中反应更快，而对照组则恰恰相反。在患者组中，与相容试验相比，参与者对不相容试验的反应越快，复发的可能性就越大。
与对照组不同，戒断酒精依赖的患者表现出相对的回避偏见，而不是相对的趋近偏见。此外，随着对酒精的回避倾向增加，复发率也会增加。这一发现表明，在临床样本中，对酒精的回避倾向可能是有害的。
