Negative urgency, mood induction, and alcohol seeking behaviors

Abstract

BACKGROUND Negative urgency, defined as impulsive risk-taking during extreme negative emotional states, is the most important impulsivity-related trait for alcohol-related problems and alcohol dependence. However, how negative urgency imparts risk for alcohol-related problems is not yet well understood. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to examine how negative urgency relates to separable aspects of the emotional experience and alcohol-seeking behaviors. METHODS A total of 34 (19 women) community-dwelling, alcohol-using adults aged 21–32 (mean age=24.86, SD=3.40, 74.3% Caucasian) completed two counterbalanced intravenous alcohol self-administration sessions: one during a neutral mood condition and one during a negative mood condition. RESULTS Negative urgency was associated with 1) greater mood change following negative mood induction (F=4.38, df=15, p=.002, η2=0.87), but was unrelated to changes in craving or cortisol release in response to mood induction; 2) greater alcohol craving prior to and after an alcohol prime (F=3.27, p=.02, η2=0.86), but only in the negative and not the neutral mood condition; and 3) higher peak BrAC (F=2.13, df=42, p=.02, η2=0.48), continuing to increase intoxication level over a longer period (F=3.77, df=42, p<.001, η2=0.62), and more alcohol seeking (F=21.73, df=22, p<.001, η2=0.94) throughout the negative session. Negative urgency was associated with overall lower cortisol release. CONCLUSIONS These results highlight the importance of assessing behavioral indicators of negative urgency under mood condition, and suggest that negative urgency may amplify alcohol self-administration through increased negative emotional reactivity to mood events and increased alcohol craving after initial alcohol exposure, leading to maintenance of alcohol related behavior.

Facets of impulsivity and alcohol use: What role do emotions play?

“…Some evidence also suggests that negative urgency is associated with greater emotional responsiveness following negative mood 20 inductions. Increased alcohol craving and seeking was found in individuals high in negative urgency following a negative, but not neutral, mood induction (VanderVeen et al, 2016). In agreement, action restraint in the negative versus neutral context on the GNG task evokes greater recruitment of inhibitory brain regions in individuals high in negative urgency than controls (Chester et al, 2016b).…”

“…Together, these findings imply that individuals high in trait negative urgency may be more susceptible to changes in affective state and may seek alcohol as a maladaptive means of regulating their mood state. Additionally, increased alcohol craving following alcohol exposure related to negative urgency may lead to maintenance of alcohol seeking (VanderVeen et al, 2016). To our knowledge, the relationship between negative emotional urgency and distinct behavioural facets of impulsivity has not been explored.…”

To Infuse or Ingest in Human Laboratory Alcohol Research

“…Free access to alcohol rewards is available for a prescribed period of time (usually 2 to 3 hours), with maximum BrAC levels allowed up to a predetermined safety limit. Because there is good accuracy of achieving the target BrAC, maximum allowable BrAC levels range up to 200 mg/dl, although most infusion self‐administration studies set the limit between 100 and 180 mg/dl (e.g., Plawecki et al, 2018b; Stangl et al, 2017; VanderVeen et al, 2016).…”

“…The literature associating intravenous alcohol self‐administration paradigms with behavioral and clinical phenotypes is emerging. Intravenous alcohol self‐administration has been associated with family history of alcoholism (Zimmermann et al, 2009), drinking history (Bujarski et al, 2018; Stangl et al, 2017), including binge drinking (Sloan et al, 2019), AUD risk (Gowin et al, 2017), craving (Green et al, 2019; Wardell et al, 2015), personality traits (Stangl et al, 2017; VanderVeen et al, 2016), sex differences (Cyders et al, 2016; Plawecki et al, 2018b), pharmacologic targets or interventions (Suchankova et al, 2017), and risk genotypes (Hendershot et al, 2016, 2017; Plawecki et al, 2013; Sloan et al, 2018; Suchankova et al, 2017).…”

Psychometric properties of the transaddiction craving triggers questionnaire in alcohol use disorder

“…Negative urgency is the tendency to act rashly in response to extreme negative emotions, whereas positive urgency is the tendency to act rashly in response to positive emotions. Negative urgency has been previously shown to increase negative emotional reactivity to mood events and alcohol craving (VanderVeen et al, ). This correlation confirms the clinical relevance of these two TCTQ dimensions and supports the development of personalized interventions that rely on psychological functioning for relapse prevention.…”