Effects of a brief mindfulness meditation practice on Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in alcohol use disorder - a pilot study.
Frontiers in Psychiatry January 1, 2023 Annika Rosenthal, Maria Garbusow, Nina Romanczuk-Seiferth et al.
A brief mindful body scan meditation may reduce the influence of environmental cues on behavior in people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to a pilot experiment. Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) measures how much contextual cues affect goal-directed actions, and a larger PIT effect is thought to contribute to relapse in AUD. In a randomized within-subjects design, 27 AUD participants and 35 healthy controls listened to either a guided body scan meditation or nature sounds (control). No overall differences in PIT effect emerged between groups or conditions, but a significant interaction showed that AUD participants had a smaller PIT effect after the body scan. These preliminary results suggest mindfulness may alter cue reactivity in AUD, though further research is needed.