Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA; Center for Addiction Research & Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA; Center for Addiction Research & Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Addict Behav. 2020 Jul;106:106359. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106359. Epub 2020 Feb 19.
Individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) display deficits across a range of cognitive processes. Decrements in social cognition may be particularly important for interpersonal functioning and post-treatment adaptation. Although social cognitive deficits are associated with chronic use of numerous substances, the role of polysubstance use in AUD-associated deficits remains largely unaddressed.
Community volunteers (n = 49; 22 men) and inpatient treatment-seekers with AUD were administered neurocognitive tasks indexing emotion processing and non-affective cognitive functioning. Tasks included an emotion discrimination task, a working memory task with affective stimuli, a general face processing (control) task, two measures of executive function, and two measures of visual spatial function. AUD subgroups included individuals with no recent (6-month) polysubstance use (AUD-Only; n = 22; 15 men), and those with at least weekly use (Poly-SU; n = 22; 18 men).
Poly-SU individuals evinced disadvantaged performance relative to other groups on the emotion discrimination task [ps ≤ 0.001], affective working memory task [ps ≤ 0.050], and two executive function measures [ps ≤ 0.051]. No differences were observed for visual spatial functioning [ps ≥ 0.498] or general face processing [ps ≥ 0.190]. No performance differences between AUD-Only and community volunteers were noted.
Results extend the emerging literature exploring emotion processing in AUD and add to the established literature regarding cognitive deficits in this population. The data suggest that among individuals with AUD, those with polysubstance use may be particularly vulnerable to deficits in decoding emotional face content. The current work highlights the need to incorporate more nuanced and careful considerations of polysubstance use in the design and analysis for future investigations of alcohol-associated deficits in emotion processing.
患有酒精使用障碍（AUD）的个体在一系列认知过程中表现出缺陷。社交认知能力的下降可能对人际交往功能和治疗后的适应尤为重要。尽管社交认知缺陷与多种物质的慢性使用有关，但多物质使用在 AUD 相关缺陷中的作用在很大程度上仍未得到解决。
对社区志愿者（n=49；22 名男性）和住院治疗的 AUD 患者进行神经认知任务测试，以评估情绪处理和非情感认知功能。任务包括情绪辨别任务、带有情感刺激的工作记忆任务、一般面部处理（对照）任务、两个执行功能测量和两个视觉空间功能测量。AUD 亚组包括最近（6 个月）没有多物质使用的个体（AUD-Only；n=22；15 名男性）和每周至少使用一次的个体（Poly-SU；n=22；18 名男性）。
Poly-SU 个体在情绪辨别任务[ps≤0.001]、情感工作记忆任务[ps≤0.050]和两个执行功能测量[ps≤0.051]上的表现明显劣于其他组。在视觉空间功能[ps≥0.498]或一般面部处理[ps≥0.190]方面没有观察到差异。在 AUD-Only 和社区志愿者之间没有观察到表现差异。
结果扩展了探索 AUD 中情绪处理的新兴文献，并为该人群的认知缺陷的既定文献做出了贡献。数据表明，在 AUD 患者中，多物质使用者可能特别容易出现解码情绪面部内容的缺陷。目前的工作强调了在未来对酒精相关情绪处理缺陷进行研究时，需要在设计和分析中更细致和仔细地考虑多物质使用。
