Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2022 Jul;46(7):1294-1305. doi: 10.1111/acer.14854. Epub 2022 May 25.
Early recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD) is commonly associated with high levels of negative affect, stress, and emotional vulnerability, which confer significant relapse risk. Emotion differentiation-the ability to distinguish between discrete emotions-has been shown to predict relapse after treatment for a drug use disorder, but this relationship has not been explored in individuals recovering from AUD.
The current study used thrice daily random and up to thrice daily self-initiated ecological momentary assessment surveys (N = 42, observations = 915) to examine whether 1) moments of high affective arousal are characterized by momentary differences in emotion differentiation among individuals in the first year of a current AUD recovery attempt, and 2) individuals' average emotion differentiation would predict subsequent alcohol use measured by the timeline follow-back over a 3-month follow-up period.
Multilevel models showed that moments (Level 1) of higher-than-average negative affect (p < 0.001) and/or stress (p = 0.033) were characterized by less negative emotion differentiation, while moments of higher-than-average positive affect were characterized by greater positive emotion differentiation (p < 0.001). At the between-person level (Level 2), participants with higher stress overall had lower negative emotion differentiation (p = 0.009). Linear regression showed that average negative, but not positive, emotion differentiation was inversely associated with percent drinking days over the subsequent 3-month follow-up period (p = 0.042). Neither form of average emotion differentiation was associated with drinking quantity.
We found that for individuals in early AUD recovery, affective states are associated with acute shifts in the capacity for emotion differentiation. Further, we found that average negative emotion differentiation prospectively predicts subsequent alcohol use.
酒精使用障碍（AUD）的早期康复通常与高水平的负面情绪、压力和情绪脆弱性相关，这些因素会带来显著的复发风险。情绪区分——区分不同情绪的能力——已被证明可以预测药物使用障碍治疗后的复发，但在从 AUD 中康复的个体中，尚未探索这种关系。
本研究使用每日三次随机和最多每日三次自我启动的生态瞬时评估调查（N=42，观察=915），来检验以下两个问题：1）在 AUD 康复尝试的第一年中，个体在高情感唤起时刻是否表现出情绪区分能力的瞬间差异；2）个体的平均情绪区分能力是否可以预测随后的酒精使用，通过 3 个月随访期间的时间线回溯来衡量。
多层模型显示，高于平均水平的负性情绪（p<0.001）和/或压力（p=0.033）的时刻特征是负性情绪区分能力降低，而高于平均水平的正性情绪的时刻特征是正性情绪区分能力增强（p<0.001）。在个体间水平（Level 2）上，整体压力较高的参与者的负性情绪区分能力较低（p=0.009）。线性回归显示，平均负性情绪区分能力与随后 3 个月随访期间的饮酒天数呈负相关（p=0.042），而平均正性情绪区分能力与饮酒量无关。
我们发现，对于 AUD 早期康复中的个体，情感状态与情绪区分能力的急性变化相关。此外，我们发现平均负性情绪区分能力可以预测随后的酒精使用。
