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Can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein?

BACKGROUND: Baclofen has shown promise in the treatment of alcohol dependence. However, its precise (neuro-) psychological working mechanism is still under debate. AIMS: This study aimed to get a better understanding of baclofen’s working mechanism by examining the effect of baclofen on cognitive bi...

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Autores principales: Beraha, Esther M, Salemink, Elske, Krediet, Erwin, Wiers, Reinout W
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6125818/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29897022
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269881118780010
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author Beraha, Esther M
Salemink, Elske
Krediet, Erwin
Wiers, Reinout W
author_facet Beraha, Esther M
Salemink, Elske
Krediet, Erwin
Wiers, Reinout W
author_sort Beraha, Esther M
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Baclofen has shown promise in the treatment of alcohol dependence. However, its precise (neuro-) psychological working mechanism is still under debate. AIMS: This study aimed to get a better understanding of baclofen’s working mechanism by examining the effect of baclofen on cognitive biases. It was hypothesized that baclofen, compared to placebo, would lead to weaker cognitive biases. Furthermore, given a suggested anxiolytic effect of baclofen, we expected that anxiety would moderate this effect. METHODS: From a larger randomized clinical trial (RCT) with 151 participants, a subset of 143 detoxified alcohol-dependent patients, either taking baclofen or placebo, was examined. Attentional bias for alcohol (500 and 1500 ms), alcohol approach tendencies, implicit alcohol-relaxation associations and trait anxiety were assessed before the administration of baclofen or placebo. Four weeks later, 94 patients were still abstinent (53 in the baclofen and 41 in the placebo condition) and cognitive biases were assessed again. RESULTS: At baseline, patients showed a vigilance-avoidance pattern for the attentional bias (at 500 and 1500 ms, respectively) and alcohol-negative associations. After 4 weeks, an indication for an attentional bias away from alcohol at 500 ms was found only in the baclofen group; however, cognitive biases did not differ significantly between treatment groups. No moderating role of anxiety on cognitive biases was found. CONCLUSIONS: Baclofen did not lead to a differential change in cognitive biases compared with placebo, and trait anxiety levels did not moderate this. A better understanding of the working mechanism of baclofen and predictors of treatment success would allow prescribing of baclofen in a more targeted manner.
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spelling pubmed-61258182018-09-19 Can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein? Beraha, Esther M Salemink, Elske Krediet, Erwin Wiers, Reinout W J Psychopharmacol Original Papers BACKGROUND: Baclofen has shown promise in the treatment of alcohol dependence. However, its precise (neuro-) psychological working mechanism is still under debate. AIMS: This study aimed to get a better understanding of baclofen’s working mechanism by examining the effect of baclofen on cognitive biases. It was hypothesized that baclofen, compared to placebo, would lead to weaker cognitive biases. Furthermore, given a suggested anxiolytic effect of baclofen, we expected that anxiety would moderate this effect. METHODS: From a larger randomized clinical trial (RCT) with 151 participants, a subset of 143 detoxified alcohol-dependent patients, either taking baclofen or placebo, was examined. Attentional bias for alcohol (500 and 1500 ms), alcohol approach tendencies, implicit alcohol-relaxation associations and trait anxiety were assessed before the administration of baclofen or placebo. Four weeks later, 94 patients were still abstinent (53 in the baclofen and 41 in the placebo condition) and cognitive biases were assessed again. RESULTS: At baseline, patients showed a vigilance-avoidance pattern for the attentional bias (at 500 and 1500 ms, respectively) and alcohol-negative associations. After 4 weeks, an indication for an attentional bias away from alcohol at 500 ms was found only in the baclofen group; however, cognitive biases did not differ significantly between treatment groups. No moderating role of anxiety on cognitive biases was found. CONCLUSIONS: Baclofen did not lead to a differential change in cognitive biases compared with placebo, and trait anxiety levels did not moderate this. A better understanding of the working mechanism of baclofen and predictors of treatment success would allow prescribing of baclofen in a more targeted manner. SAGE Publications 2018-06-13 2018-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6125818/ /pubmed/29897022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269881118780010 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Papers
Beraha, Esther M
Salemink, Elske
Krediet, Erwin
Wiers, Reinout W
Can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein?
title Can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein?
title_full Can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein?
title_fullStr Can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein?
title_full_unstemmed Can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein?
title_short Can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein?
title_sort can baclofen change alcohol-related cognitive biases and what is the role of anxiety herein?
topic Original Papers
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6125818/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29897022
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269881118780010
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