Effects of a brief mindfulness meditation practice on Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in alcohol use disorder - a pilot study.

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Pavlovian conditioned contextual cues have been suggested to modulate instrumental action and might explain maladaptive behavior such as relapse in participants suffering from alcohol use disorder (AUD). Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer (PIT) experimentally assesses the magnitude of this context-dependent effect and studies have shown a larger PIT effect in AUD populations. Taken this into account, a reduction of the influence of cues on behavior seems warranted and one approach that could alter such cue reactivity is mindfulness. Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to be efficient in the treatment of AUD, but underlying mechanisms are yet to be elucidated. Therefore, we aim at investigating the effect of a brief mindful body scan meditation on the magnitude of the PIT effect in AUD subjects and matched controls. Using a randomized within-subjects design, we compared the effect of a short audio guided body scan meditation against a control condition (audio of nature sounds) on PIT in healthy (n = 35) and AUD (n = 27) participants. We found no differences in PIT effect between healthy and AUD participants as well as between conditions. However, a significant interaction effect points to a decreased PIT effect after body scan meditation in AUD subjects only. These pilot results suggest that AUD might be susceptible to mindfulness-induced changes in PIT, with these findings contributing to entangling the underlying mechanisms of the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in AUD. However, further investigation should confirm these preliminary results and the efficacy of mindfulness meditation practice in decreasing the PIT effect.