The Association Between Rumination and Craving in Chinese Methamphetamine-Dependent Patients: The Masking Effect of Depression

Abstract

Background

Craving is a core feature of addiction. Rumination and depression play a crucial role in the process of methamphetamine addiction. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between rumination, depression and craving in methamphetamine patients, which has not been explored yet.

Methods

A total of 778 patients with methamphetamine user disorder (MUD) at the Xinhua Drug Rehabilitation Center, located in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, China. We used a set of self-administered questionnaires that included socio-demographic, detailed drug use history, rumination, depression and craving information. The Rumination Response Scale (RRS) was used to measure rumination, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to measure depression and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to measure craving.

Results

There was a significant positive correlation between rumination and craving, or depression, and between depression and craving. Furthermore, depression mediated between rumination and craving, with a mediation effect of 160%.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that there is a close interrelationship between rumination, craving and depression in MUD patients, and that depression may play a mediating role between rumination and craving.

HIGHLIGHTS

• This is the first study to investigate the relationship between rumination and craving during withdrawal in methamphetamine dependent patients and the mediating role of depression.

• Among methamphetamine patients, it was found that reflection was positively correlated with rumination and depression, depression and craving, rumination and craving, and depression plays the mediating role between rumination and craving.

• These findings suggest that interventions to reduce depression and rumination may also be effective for withdrawal and relapse reduction in methamphetamine patients, providing further rationale for the treatment of methamphetamine patients.

Keywords:

• Craving
• rumination
• depression
• mediation effect
• methamphetamine

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the drug rehab staff who participated in this study as well as those researchers who contributed to the evaluation of the participants.

Author contributors

Xiuli Liu: Writing- original draft. Qingjie Tai: Writing- original draft. Feifei Meng: Statistical analysis, Writing-original draft. Yang Tian: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Dongmei Wang: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Yin Yang: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Jiajing Chen: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Yuxuan Du: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Rongrong Zhu: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Wenjia Wang: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Yuqing Li: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Fusheng Fan: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Fabing Fu: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Dejun Wei: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Shanshan Tang: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Siying Liu: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Jiaxue Wan: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Wanni Zhang: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Qilin Liang: Conception of the manuscript, data collation. Huixia Zhou: Project administration, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing- review & Editing. Xiangyang Zhang: Project administration, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing- review & Editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author statement

This manuscript has not been published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The present study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. All participants provided written informed consent to participate in this study.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the grants from the Chinese National Programs for Brain Science (2021ZD0202102) and CAS International Cooperation Research Program (153111KYSB20190004) and The National Natural Science Foundation of China (31300848; 31800930; 31900777).