McNeill Adam M, Monk Rebecca L, Qureshi Adam, Heim Derek
School of Social Sciences, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK.
Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK.
J Psychopharmacol. 2021 Nov;35(11):1398-1410. doi: 10.1177/02698811211050567. Epub 2021 Oct 25.
The pharmacological effects of alcohol on executive function, craving and subsequent alcohol-seeking have been well documented. Yet, insufficient methodological controls within existing alcohol administration paradigms have meant that the relative importance of alcohol's pharmacological and anticipatory effects remains in need of further elucidation.
The objective of this study is to disentangle alcohol's pharmacological effects from its anticipatory effects on alcohol-related cognitions and subsequent consumption.
Inhibitory control, attentional bias and craving were assessed pre- and post-consumption in 100 participants who were randomly allocated to one of four beverage conditions in a two by two design: (1) alcohol aware (alcohol with participant knowledge (pharmacological/anticipation effects)), (2) alcohol blind (alcohol without participant knowledge; in a novel grain alcohol masking condition (pharmacological/no anticipation effects)), (3) placebo (no alcohol but participants were deceived (anticipation/non-pharmacological effects)) and (4) pure control (no alcohol with participant knowledge (no anticipation/non-pharmacological effects)).
Findings suggest that the pharmacological effects of alcohol result in greater inhibitory control impairments compared with anticipated effects. Anticipatory but not the pharmacological effects of alcohol were found to increase attentional bias. Both pharmacology and anticipation resulted in increased craving, though higher levels of craving were observed due to alcohol's pharmacology. Furthermore, alcohol pharmacology resulted in heightened ad libitum consumption; however, anticipation did not. Changes in craving partially mediated the relationship between initial intoxication and subsequent drinking, while inhibitory control impairments did not.
Successive alcohol consumption appears driven primarily by the pharmacological effects of alcohol which are exerted via changes in craving.
酒精对执行功能、渴望及后续觅酒行为的药理作用已有充分记录。然而，现有酒精给药范式中方法学控制不足，这意味着酒精药理作用和预期作用的相对重要性仍需进一步阐明。
本研究的目的是区分酒精的药理作用与其对酒精相关认知及后续饮酒行为的预期作用。
100名参与者被随机分配到2×2设计的四种饮料条件之一，在饮酒前后评估抑制控制、注意偏向和渴望：（1）知晓酒精组（参与者知晓饮用酒精（药理/预期作用）），（2）不知晓酒精组（参与者不知晓饮用酒精；处于新型谷物酒精掩盖条件下（药理/无预期作用）），（3）安慰剂组（无酒精但参与者被欺骗（预期/非药理作用））和（4）纯对照组（参与者知晓无酒精（无预期/非药理作用））。
研究结果表明，与预期作用相比，酒精的药理作用会导致更大的抑制控制损伤。发现酒精的预期作用而非药理作用会增加注意偏向。药理作用和预期作用都会导致渴望增加，不过由于酒精的药理作用，观察到更高水平的渴望。此外，酒精药理作用导致随意饮酒量增加；然而，预期作用则不然。渴望的变化部分介导了初始醉酒与后续饮酒之间的关系，而抑制控制损伤则没有。
连续饮酒似乎主要由酒精的药理作用驱动，这种作用通过渴望的变化来发挥。
