Effects of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Pavlovian-To-Instrumental Transfer in Alcohol Use Disorder
Annika Rosenthal, Maria Garbusow, Nina Romanczuk-Seiferth, Anne Beck
medRxiv January 6, 2023 preprint DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.04.23284172 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized within-subjects experiment |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 62 |
| Population | Adults with alcohol use disorder (n = 27) and matched healthy controls (n = 35) |
| Intervention | Mindful body scan meditation |
| Duration | Brief audio guided body scan meditation; no follow-up period stated |
| Topics | Addiction Meditation |
| Key findings | No overall difference in Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) emerged between AUD and healthy participants or between the body scan and nature sounds conditions. A significant interaction indicated that PIT decreased after the body scan meditation only in participants with alcohol use disorder, suggesting AUD may be susceptible to mindfulness-induced changes in cue-driven behavior. |
Abstract
Pavlovian conditioned contextual cues have been suggested to modulate instrumental action and might explain maladaptive behavior such as relapse in patients 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 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.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on addiction, most cited first.
Citations in the library
Cites 3
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- Mindfulness training modifies cognitive, affective, and physiological mechanisms implicated in alcohol dependence: results of a randomized controlled pilot trial. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs June 1, 2010