Craving, prayer, and the brain.
Craving, prayer, and the brain.
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渴望、祈祷和大脑。
DOI：
10.1080/00952990.2016.1200061
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发表时间：
2017
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Ghahremani,DaraG
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ghahremani,DaraG
在美国推行的克服毒瘾的计划中，最广泛采用的也许是“十二步计划”，它是匿名戒酒协会 (AA) 和其他机构（包括匿名戒毒协会）的核心。除了严重依赖康复过程中的成员的社会支持外，该计划还融入了精神概念，相信“比我们更伟大的力量”可以影响康复，并包括祈祷等精神实践。这种精神成分可能是其成功的一个重要方面，但尚未得到广泛的研究。这可能部分是因为精神体验的异质性可能使实证研究的适当实验设计具有挑战性。然而，明确定义、标准化的精神实践的急性影响可能更容易研究并提供一些见解。尤其是祈祷，已被证明可以减少饮酒量 (1)，临床访谈显示，AA 参与者经常使用祈祷来避免渴望 (2)，这是成瘾的一个核心特征，可以促进其维持。然而，这种精神实践影响渴望的机制仍然难以捉摸，因为它们经常引发多种情绪，涉及可能难以理清的概念，并且可能对个体产生不同的影响。然而，解决有关祈祷所引发的神经过程的问题，可以帮助确定对控制物质使用行为有重要影响的回路。为了解决这些问题，Galanter 等人的报告(2)
Among the programs pursued to overcome addiction in the United States, perhaps the most widely adopted is the Twelve-Step Program that is at the heart of the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) fellowship and others, including Narcotics Anonymous. In addition to heavy reliance on social support from members who are further along in their recovery, the program incorporates spiritual concepts, with the belief that “a power greater than ourselves” can influence recovery, and includes spiritual practices, such as prayer. This spiritual component may be an important aspect of its success, yet it has not been extensively examined. This may be, in part, because the heterogeneity of spiritual experiences may make a proper experimental design for empirical studies challenging. However, the acute effects of clearly defined, standardized spiritual practices may be more amenable to study and offer some insights.Prayer, in particular, has been shown to reduce alcohol consumption (1) and clinical interviews have revealed that AA participants often use prayer to stave off craving (2), a core feature of addiction that promotes its maintenance. However, the mechanisms by which such spiritual practices affect craving remain elusive as they often invoke a number of emotions, involve concepts that may be difficult to disentangle, and may have variable effects across individuals. Nevertheless, resolving questions about the neural processes invoked by prayer that lead to reduced craving can help determine circuits that have an important impact on controlling substance use behavior. In an attempt to address such questions, the report by Galanter et al.(2)