Comparing alcohol cue-reactivity in treatment-seekers versus non-treatment-seekers with alcohol use disorder

ABSTRACT

Background: Recent studies have examined the distinction between treatment-seekers and non-treatment-seekers with alcohol use disorder (AUD) with a focus on treatment development.

Objectives: To advance our understanding of treatment-seeking in clinical research for AUD, this study compares treatment-seekers to non-treatment-seekers with AUD on alcohol cue-reactivity (CR).

Methods: A community sample (N = 65, 40% female) of treatment-seeking (n = 32, 40.6% female) and non-treatment-seeking individuals (n = 33, 39.4% female) with a DSM-5 diagnosis of moderate-to-severe AUD completed a laboratory CR paradigm. Analyses compared the two groups on subjective alcohol craving, heart rate, and blood pressure after the presentation of water cues and alcohol cues.

Results: Mixed-design analyses of variance revealed a main effect of treatment-seeking status (i.e., group; p = .02), such that treatment-seekers reported higher levels of subjective craving across both water (p = .04) and alcohol (p = .03) cue types. However, analyses did not support a group × cue type interaction effect (p = .9), indicating that treatment-seekers were not more cue-reactive. Group differences in craving were no longer significant when controlling for AUD severity. On blood pressure and heart rate, there was no significant effect of cue type, group, or cue type × group (p’s > 0.13).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that while treatment-seekers report higher levels of subjective craving than non-treatment-seekers, they are not more cue-reactive. Under the framework of medications development, we interpret these null findings to indicate that non-treatment seeking samples may be informative about CR and therefore, medication-induced effects on CR.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol
• craving
• cue-reactivity
• treatment-seeking
• behavioral pharmacology

Disclosure statement

Neither author has any conflicts of interests to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under grant K24AA025704; and the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) under grants DA041226 and T32 DA007272.