Approach bias modification in alcohol dependence: Do clinical effects replicate and for whom does it work best?

Abstract

CBM is a promising treatment add-on in alcohol addiction and may counter some of the maladaptive neurocognitive effects of long-term alcoholism.

Validation of the Amsterdam Beverage Picture Set: A Controlled Picture Set for Cognitive Bias Measurement and Modification Paradigms

“…The controlled nature of the ABPS is useful in cognitive bias measurement and modification paradigms, especially for feature matching as practiced in visual probe tasks (Bradley et al., 2003), while the large number and variety of beverages allows for stimulus personalization (Fadardi and Cox, 2009; Houben and Wiers, 2007; Tapert et al., 2003) and multisession training (Eberl et al., 2013; Van Deursen et al., 2013; Wiers et al., 2011). Results on stimulus context might indicate that the real‐life characteristics of social scenes might be essential to both induce a stronger urge to drink as well as wanting and liking.…”

Implicit attitudes towards smoking predict long-term relapse in abstinent smokers

“…Substance-related stimuli have been shown to automatically (a) grab the user's attention (e.g., Field and Cox 2008), (b) activate approach/avoidance tendencies (e.g., Eberl et al 2013;Spruyt et al 2013;Wiers et al 2011), and (c) activate implicit attitudes from memory (e.g., Houben et al 2010c;Wiers et al 2002). Nevertheless, only a limited number of studies have documented the extent to which these automatic processes drive relapse in abstaining patients.…”

The Potential Usefulness of Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) in the Treatment of Problematic Alcohol Use in Individuals with Mild to Borderline Intellectual Disability

“…A recent study in an Australian clinical sample found that applying this type of CBM is useful when applied during detox (Manning et al 2016). As noted by Van Duijvenbode et al, there is a lot of variability in approach bias for alcohol and, in the largest of these studies, it was found that CBM was particularly useful for those patients who showed a strong alcohol-approach bias before the training (Eberl et al 2013). These findings would indicate that this type of training is especially useful for those individuals with relatively strong approach tendencies, but those are difficult to assess reliably at the individual level as pointed out by Van Duijvenbode et al.…”

“…However, given that clinical studies show consistent beneficial effects in about half of the patients, and no detrimental effects in the other half, it would seem both safe and important to further test these interventions in problem drinkers with MBID, provided that they are motivated to change. The latter factor appears to be a crucial moderator of effectiveness (Wiers et al 2016): there are consistent positive effects in clinical samples motivated to change (carried by those who have the strongest bias, Eberl et al 2013), but small rapidly fading effects in problematically drinking students not motivated to change (which is actually also true for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy; Wiers et al 2005).…”

“…Several authors have criticised the Cristea et al (2016) metaanalysis for not distinguishing between experimental studies in students not motivated to change (mostly small effects and null-findings) and clinical studies (few, but consistent positive findings). In fact, one type of CBM has consistently yielded an improvement of long-term clinical outcomes, with approximately 10% less relapse 1 year after treatment discharge (Wiers et al 2011;Eberl et al 2013). Moreover, long-term clinical effects were mediated by the change in alcoholapproach bias.…”