Citation

Pike E, Stoops WW, Fillmore MT, Rush CR. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013; 133(2): 768-771.

Affiliation

Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Medical Behavioral Science Building, Lexington, KY 40536-0086, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky Arts and Sciences, Kastle Hall, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.08.004

PMID

24004904

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cocaine users show impaired inhibitory control on cued go/no-go tasks and attention bias to drug-related stimuli in the emotional Stroop task. The results of a previous study suggested that there is a relationship between inhibitory control and attention bias in alcohol drinkers such that the presentation of alcohol-related images as a go cue in a cued go/no-go task significantly impaired inhibitory control compared to neutral images as a go cue. The present study determined the generality of these previous findings by assessing inhibitory control in cocaine users utilizing a modified cued go/no-go task with cocaine or neutral images as the cues. METHODS: Non-treatment seeking cocaine users (N=30) completed the modified task after completing detailed measures of demographics and drug use. Participants were matched on basic demographic factors and were assigned to groups in which they saw either a cocaine or neutral image as the go cue. RESULTS: Participants assigned to the cocaine image go cue condition had a significantly higher proportion of inhibitory failures to the no-go target than their counterparts assigned to the neutral cue condition, but there were no group differences on reaction time (i.e., accuracy was not traded for speed). CONCLUSIONS: Cocaine users were less able to inhibit pre-potent responses when a cocaine-related image served as the go cue than when a neutral image served as the go cue, consistent with previous research in alcohol users. The outcomes suggest that cocaine-related cues produce disinhibition, perhaps contributing to the high incidence of relapse or continued cocaine use.

Language: en