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Psicothema
On-line version ISSN 1886-144XPrint version ISSN 0214-9915
Abstract
ANDERSON, Alexandra et al. Leveraging online treatment to re-examine the association between alcohol use and disinhibition. Psicothema [online]. 2024, vol.36, n.1, pp.15-25. Epub Jan 29, 2024. ISSN 1886-144X. https://dx.doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2022.516.
Background:
Cognitive disinhibition underpins alcohol and drug use problems. Although higher-risk substance use is consistently associated with poorer disinhibition, current findings may be limited by narrow recruitment methods, which over-represent individuals engaged in traditional treatment services with more severe presentations. We embedded a novel gamified disinhibition task (the Cognitive Impulsivity Suite; CIS) in a national online addiction support service (https://www.counsellingonline.org.au/).
Method:
Participants aged 18 to 64 (N = 137; 109 women) completed the Alcohol-Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) along with the CIS, which measures three aspects of disinhibition (Attentional Control, Information-Sampling, and Feedback Monitoring/Shifting). The majority of the sample comprised people with alcohol use, and AUDIT scores were differentiated into ‘higher-risk' or ‘lower-risk' groups using latent-class analysis. These classes were then regressed against CIS performance measures.
Results:
Compared to lower-risk, higher-risk alcohol use was associated with poorer attentional control and feedback monitoring/shifting. While higher-risk alcohol use was associated with slower information accumulation, this was only observed for older adults, who appeared to compensate with a more conservative response criterion.
Conclusions:
Our results reveal novel relationships between higher-risk alcohol use and specific aspects of disinhibition in participants who sought online addiction help services.
Keywords : Crowdsourcing; Substance use; Substance severity; Impulsivity; Disinhibition.