Citation

Burke TA, Allen KJD, Carpenter RW, Siegel DM, Kautz MM, Liu RT, Alloy LB. Behav. Res. Ther. 2021; 142: e103865.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.brat.2021.103865

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The current study investigated whether impaired emotional response inhibition to self-harm stimuli is a risk factor for real-time nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) urges. Participants were 60 university students with a history of repetitive NSSI. At baseline, participants completed an emotional stop-signal task assessing response inhibition to self-harm stimuli. Participants subsequently completed an ecological momentary assessment protocol in which they reported negative affect, urgency, and NSSI urge intensity three times daily over a ten-day period. Impaired emotional response inhibition to self-harm stimuli did not evidence a main effect on the strength of momentary NSSI urges. However, emotional response inhibition to self-harm images interacted with momentary negative affect to predict the strength of real-time NSSI urges, after adjusting for emotional response inhibition to neutral images. Our findings suggest that emotional response inhibition deficits specifically to self-harm stimuli may pose vulnerability for increased NSSI urge intensity during real-time, state-level negative affect.

Language: en

Keywords

Ecological momentary assessment; Emotional stop-signal task; Inhibitory control; Negative affect; Nonsuicidal self-injury; Urgency