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

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 867-875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther M Beraha ◽  
Elske Salemink ◽  
Erwin Krediet ◽  
Reinout W Wiers
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Treatment Success ◽  
Anxiolytic Effect ◽  
Working Mechanism ◽  
Placebo Condition ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Moderating Role

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.

scholarly journals Sex Differences in Anxiety: An Investigation of the Moderating Role of Sex in Performance Monitoring and Attentional Bias to Threat in High Trait Anxious Individuals

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Strand ◽  
Lin Fang ◽  
Joshua M. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role

Anxiety disorders are more predominant in women than men, however there is a lack of understanding as to what neurocognitive mechanisms drive this sex difference. Recent investigation has found a potential moderating role of sex in the relationship between anxiety and the error related negativity (ERN)—a component of error-monitoring that is prevalent in high anxiety individuals—such that females display a positive relationship between anxiety/worry and ERN amplitude. We strove to further explore the influence of sex on the relationship between trait anxiety and performance monitoring, specifically with ERN, as well as extend this work to include another hallmark of anxiety, attentional bias to threat. To meet this end, participants performed the flanker and dot-probe tasks, respectively. We did not find a significant difference in the relationship between attention bias scores and anxiety for female vs. males participants. Furthermore, ΔERN amplitudes were greater in males compared to females, and males had more positive CRN amplitudes than females. There were no significant associations between ERN or ΔERN with anxiety in both male and female participants. However, there was a significant relationship between CRN amplitudes and trait anxiety in male but not female participants. Given these results, the effect of sex on the relationship between components of performance monitoring—namely the CRN and ERN—and anxiety may be more nuanced than the current understanding. Our study was limited to detecting medium to large sized moderation effects. Our findings may be important for future meta-analysis on sex differences in anxiety.

The relative efficacy of mindfulness versus distraction: The moderating role of attentional bias

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Shires ◽  
Louise Sharpe ◽  
Toby R. O. Newton John
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Relative Efficacy ◽  
Moderating Role

Priming the trait category “hostility”: The moderating role of trait anxiety

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus A. Maier ◽  
Michael P. Berner ◽  
Robin C. Hau ◽  
Reinhard Pekrun
Keyword(s):  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Trait Category ◽  
Moderating Role

scholarly journals Self-Concept and Inattention or Hyperactivity–Impulsivity Symptomatology: The Role of Anxiety

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 250
Author(s):  
Marisol Cueli ◽  
Celestino Rodríguez ◽  
Laura M. Cañamero ◽  
José Carlos Núñez ◽  
Paloma González-Castro
Keyword(s):  
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
State Trait Anxiety Inventory ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Adhd Symptomatology

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with low levels of self-concept (academic, emotional, social or physical), although this association can differ in the function of the inattention or hyperactivity–impulsivity symptomatology. Furthermore, the relation between ADHD and self-concept can be mediated or moderated by the levels of anxiety. This work is aimed to examine the differential effect of inattention symptomatology and hyperactivity–impulsivity symptomatology on academic, emotional, social and physical self-concept and the mediating or moderating role of anxiety in this relationship. A total of 167 students (70.7% boys and 29.3% girls) aged between 11 and 16 participated in this study. Students’ ADHD symptomatology, self-concept in four areas (academic, emotional, social and physical self-concept) and trait anxiety were measured with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. The results indicate that trait anxiety mediates the relationship between inattention and emotional, social and physical self-concept but does not moderate this relationship. Trait anxiety does not mediate or moderate the relationship between hyperactivity–impulsivity symptoms and self-concept. When inattention symptomatology increases, academic self-concept decreases directly, but students’ emotional, social and physical self-concept decreases indirectly through trait anxiety.

Nudging openly – An experimental analysis of nudge transparency in a public goods setting

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Große Hokamp ◽  
Joachim Weimann
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
Public Good Game ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
The World ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Around the world, policy makers and public authorities are increasingly turning to behaviorally informed interventions (“nudges”) in order to help tackle important contexts of public policy. Despite their impressive merit record, these policy tools have been heavily criticized as being obscure and manipulative, thus facing challenges for their legitimate assertion in the regulatory toolkit. In this study, we seek to assess whether transparency over the use of such interventions may constitute a viable way of addressing these ethical concerns, and focus particularly on the potentially moderating role of something we call “status quo experience”, i. e. subjects’ understanding of the behavioral consequences of different choice architectures. We conduct a laboratory experiment, whereby subjects play three rounds of a public good game, the first of which defaults them towards a fully non-cooperative contribution, while the rest default them towards a fully cooperative one. Subjects in our treatment groups further receive an “informational shock” at varying points in time, disclosing how and why a fully cooperative default contribution is being used. We find that providing subjects with informational disclosure about the nudge intervention did not result in significantly different aggregate behavioral measurements between control and treatment groups. This seems to be independent of status quo experience and of the timing of transparency provision. We nonetheless find some indication that the latter could help sustain cooperation over time.

Callous-unemotional traits and the attentional bias towards emotional stimuli: Testing the moderating role of emotional and behavioural problems among high-risk adolescents

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-173
Author(s):  
Edina Szabó ◽  
József Halász ◽  
Antony Morgan ◽  
Zsolt Demetrovics ◽  
Gyöngyi Kökönyei
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Conduct Problems ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Cu Traits ◽  
Callous Unemotional ◽  
Antisocial Youth ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role

Former studies demonstrated that antisocial youth with callous-unemotional (CU) traits are impaired in the processing of negative emotional stimuli. The aim of the current study was to explore the moderating role of different behavioural (i.e. conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention) and emotional problems (i.e. internalizing symptoms) in the relationship between CU traits and attentional bias towards emotional stimuli. Besides using self-report measures, attentional bias was tested by an affective dot-probe task in a high-risk sample of 102 adolescent boys ( M age = 16.34 years; SD = 1.32). CU traits were related to reduced attention to emotionally distressing pictures. Furthermore, conduct problems significantly moderated the relationship between CU traits and attention to distress cues. These findings highlight the importance of considering potential moderators to the well-established link between CU traits and deficits in response to negative emotional cues.

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