Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

OBJECTIVE: Acute alcohol use is a risk factor for suicidal behavior. This study examined sources of variance (between-person, within-person) in hour-to-hour self-reported alcohol consumption and drinking motives and assessed the interrelations of different motives for alcohol use across the 24 hr preceding a suicide attempt. METHOD: This multisite study utilized interview data obtained retrospectively from adult patients hospitalized following a suicide attempt...

OBJECTIVE: Cannabis use is prevalent and increasing among adults in the United States. Individuals who use cannabis commonly endorse using cannabis to enhance positive affect (PA) or cope with negative affect (NA). Importantly, enhancement motives are associated with greater frequency of use, and coping motives are associated with cannabis-related problems. We used ecological momentary assessment to test whether daily-life reports of enhancement- and coping-motivated use are associated with improved affective states...

OBJECTIVE: Heightened reactivity to stress is associated with poor treatment outcome in people with substance use disorders (SUDs). Behavioral strategies can reduce stress reactivity; however, these strategies are understudied in people with SUDs. The objective of this study was to test the effect of two behavioral strategies (cognitive reappraisal and affect labeling) on stress reactivity in people with SUDs. METHOD: Treatment-seeking adults with SUDs ( N = 119) were randomized to receive brief training in cognitive reappraisal, affect labeling, or a psychoeducational control, followed by a standardized stress induction...

OBJECTIVE: The continuum hypothesis proposes that binge drinking and severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD) share qualitatively similar cognitive and emotional impairments. In SAUD, these deficits have a demonstrated impact on social decision making, resulting in a utilitarian bias. Namely, when confronted with moral dilemmas, patients with SAUD tend to focus on the consequences of their actions rather than on social norms. However, social decision-making abilities remain unexplored in binge drinking...

OBJECTIVE: Youth in the legal system are vulnerable to initiation and escalation of opioid use. The transition period during which a young person is released from the institutional setting to the community is a critical window of opportunity for preventive intervention targeting the uptake and intensification of opioid and other drug use. Adaptive preventive interventions are a promising approach to systematically varying the timing and intensity of substance use preventive interventions for these youth...

OBJECTIVE: Gambling-related harms can have a significant negative impact on disordered gamblers, lower risk gamblers, and affected others. Yet, most disordered and lower risk gamblers will never seek formal treatment, often due to the stigma and shame surrounding gambling. Online self-help forums are a popular alternative way for gamblers to anonymously seek help from others. Analysis of these interactions can provide a deeper understanding of gambling than more commonly used research methodologies...

OBJECTIVE: Growing recognition of the importance of addressing substance use among emerging adults has led to a rapid expansion of recovery services on college campuses. However, existing estimates on collegiate recovery programs or communities (CRPs/Cs) and other services are outdated or lack rigor, leaving the extent of these resources unclear. This study aimed to fill this gap in our understanding by providing current estimates of recovery-related resources. METHOD: Utilizing the Python web scraping library BeautifulSoup, we gathered a large sample of "...

OBJECTIVE: Recovery capital (RC) is a framework for conceptualizing the resources individuals use to support alcohol and other drug recovery across social, physical, human, and cultural domains. The goal of this study was to identify subgroups of individuals in recovery with distinct combinations of RC across domains and characteristics of individuals with unique RC patterns. METHOD: Latent profile analyses investigated patterns in both within-domain amount and variability of RC across each of the four domains using the Multidimensional Inventory of Recovery Capital, a theoretically and psychometrically sound RC measure...

OBJECTIVE: The current qualitative study examines the perspectives of women with opioid use disorder (OUD) and professionals that serve them on barriers to engaging in overdose prevention and harm reduction practices and recommendations for improving engagement. METHOD: Semistructured interviews ( N = 42) were conducted with women with a history of OUD ( n = 20), substance use disorder treatment professionals ( n = 12), and criminal legal professionals ( n = 10)...

OBJECTIVE: How people define recovery may affect their recovery goals, service use, and ultimately their outcomes. We examined recovery definitions among adults in recovery from an alcohol use disorder (AUD) who had different service use histories. METHOD: We analyzed online survey data from 1,492 adults with resolved lifetime AUD in "treated recovery" (any use of specialty services, such as inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation; n = 375), "assisted recovery" (any use of lay services, such as mutual-help groups, and no use of specialty services; n = 174), or "independent recovery" (no use of specialty or lay services; n = 943)...

OBJECTIVE: Research among young adults (YA), in samples of majority White college students, indicates links between posting about alcohol on social media and self-reported drinking behavior. We sought to extend this work by examining unique associations between public versus private posting about alcohol and the high-risk outcome of alcohol-related blackouts among a sample of racially/ethnically diverse YA not in 4-year college. METHOD: A sample of 499 participants (ages 18-29; 52...

OBJECTIVE: To examine early school leaving in a longitudinal cohort of all high school students treated for substance use disorder (SUD) and their demographic counterparts in Norway. METHOD: From the National Patient and National Population Registries, we extracted (a) all high school students born in 1991-1992 who received SUD treatment during 2009-2010 ( N = 648; n alcohol = 95, n cannabis = 327, and n other drugs = 226) and (b) their age-and-gender matched counterparts ( n = 647)...

OBJECTIVE: Transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) sensors capture aspects of drinking events that self-reports cannot. The multidimensional nature of TAC data allows novel classification of drinking days and identification of associated behavioral and contextual risks. We used multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) to create day-level profiles of TAC features and test their associations with (a) daily behaviors and contexts and (b) risk for alcohol use disorders at baseline. METHOD: Two hundred twenty-two regularly heavy-drinking young adults ( M age = 22...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current meta-analysis was to examine potential differences in posttreatment effect size estimates for gambling frequency (i.e., the number of days gambled) and gambling expenditure (i.e., the amount of money gambled) when using the gambling timeline followback (G-TLFB) versus other self-report assessments. METHOD: Using an open-access meta-analysis database of studies on cognitive behavioral treatment for gambling disorder, 22 studies representing 2,824 participants were identified for inclusion...

OBJECTIVE: Prenatal substance use is common and can affect maternal and infant health. In addition, prenatal substance use is associated with mental health comorbidities (depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder). Unremitting prenatal substance use disorders and mental health comorbidities are associated with poor health outcomes for mothers and exposed infants. The purpose of this study was to examine how any substance use, type of substance use (polysubstance use vs. single substance use), and combinations of mental health comorbidities predict continued use during pregnancy (i...

OBJECTIVE: We examined alcohol use and consequences across five categories of same-day drinking intentions and willingness and tested whether same-day motives and protective strategies predicted differences in outcomes across categories of intentions and willingness. METHOD: In a 14-week ecological momentary assessment design, undergraduate student participants (N = 196) reported drinking intentions and behaviors over 13 surveys weekly (four morning surveys [Thursday through Sunday]; three midday, early, and late evening surveys [Thursday through Saturday])...

OBJECTIVE: An aim of quantitative intersectional research is to model the joint impact of multiple social positions on health risk behaviors. Although moderated multiple regression is frequently used to pursue intersectional research hypotheses, such parametric approaches may produce unreliable effect estimates due to data sparsity and high dimensionality. Machine learning provides viable alternatives, offering greater flexibility in evaluating many candidate interactions amid sparse data conditions, yet remains rarely employed...

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol use is an important, but understudied, risk factor for nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), defined as deliberate physical harm to oneself without intent to die. Alcohol use may facilitate engagement in NSSI by increasing impulsivity and physical pain tolerance. Limited data also suggest that people engage in more medically severe NSSI under the influence of alcohol. METHOD: This secondary analysis study examined the use of alcohol prior to NSSI in a sample of 79 female patients with borderline personality disorder who were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial of dialectical behavior therapy...

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the ecological validity of the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS 2.0) with ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and explored the internal consistency and convergent validity of a momentary food addiction scale. METHOD: Adults ( N = 49) who met criteria for binge-eating disorder and/or food addiction (age = 34.9 ± 12.1 years; 77.1% cisgender female; 55.1% non-Hispanic White) completed online questionnaires and a 10-day EMA protocol...

OBJECTIVE: A propensity for aggression or alcohol use may be associated with alcohol-related aggression. Previous research has shown genetic overlap between alcohol use and aggression but has not looked at how alcohol-related aggression may be uniquely influenced by genetic risk for aggression or alcohol use. The present study examined the associations of genetic risk for trait aggression, alcohol use, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) with alcohol-related aggression using a polygenic risk score (PRS) approach...