Rosenthal Annika, Garbusow Maria, Romanczuk-Seiferth Nina, Beck Anne
Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Berlin University of Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Front Psychiatry. 2023 Apr 24;14:1134458. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1134458. eCollection 2023.
Pavlovian conditioned contextual cues have been suggested to modulate instrumental action and might explain maladaptive behavior such as relapse in participants suffering from alcohol use disorder (AUD). Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer (PIT) experimentally assesses the magnitude of this context-dependent effect and studies have shown a larger PIT effect in AUD populations. Taken this into account, a reduction of the influence of cues on behavior seems warranted and one approach that could alter such cue reactivity is mindfulness. Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to be efficient in the treatment of AUD, but underlying mechanisms are yet to be elucidated. Therefore, we aim at investigating the effect of a brief mindful body scan meditation on the magnitude of the PIT effect in AUD subjects and matched controls.
Using a randomized within-subjects design, we compared the effect of a short audio guided body scan meditation against a control condition (audio of nature sounds) on PIT in healthy ( = 35) and AUD ( = 27) participants.
We found no differences in PIT effect between healthy and AUD participants as well as between conditions. However, a significant interaction effect points to a decreased PIT effect after body scan meditation in AUD subjects only.
These pilot results suggest that AUD might be susceptible to mindfulness-induced changes in PIT, with these findings contributing to entangling the underlying mechanisms of the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in AUD. However, further investigation should confirm these preliminary results and the efficacy of mindfulness meditation practice in decreasing the PIT effect.
巴甫洛夫条件性情境线索已被认为可调节工具性动作，并可能解释酒精使用障碍（AUD）患者的适应不良行为，如复发。巴甫洛夫到工具性转移（PIT）实验性地评估了这种情境依赖性效应的大小，研究表明AUD人群中的PIT效应更大。考虑到这一点，似乎有必要减少线索对行为的影响，而正念是一种可以改变这种线索反应性的方法。基于正念的干预已被证明在治疗AUD方面是有效的，但其潜在机制尚待阐明。因此，我们旨在研究简短的正念身体扫描冥想对AUD受试者和匹配对照组中PIT效应大小的影响。
采用随机受试者内设计，我们比较了短音频引导的身体扫描冥想与对照条件（自然声音音频）对健康受试者（n = 35）和AUD受试者（n = 27）的PIT的影响。
我们发现健康受试者和AUD受试者之间以及不同条件之间的PIT效应没有差异。然而，一个显著的交互作用效应表明，仅在AUD受试者中，身体扫描冥想后PIT效应降低。
这些初步结果表明，AUD可能易受正念引起的PIT变化的影响，这些发现有助于阐明基于正念的干预在AUD中疗效的潜在机制。然而，进一步的研究应证实这些初步结果以及正念冥想练习在降低PIT效应方面的疗效。
