ANXIETY, DISINHIBITION, AND RISK FOR DRUG ABUSE

本申请申请资助一项为期四年的研究，以调查13-17岁儿童药物滥用的心理生理标记，这些儿童由于其父母的药物滥用史而具有药物滥用的高风险。本建议的基本原理是寻找与药物滥用有关的人格的两个主要方面有关的心理生理异常，即消极情感/焦虑和去抑制/反社会行为。理论家们提出了一种基于对厌恶和食欲刺激反应的生物行为模型，以解释动机行为的神经生理学基础，并解释儿童精神障碍。该模型假设动机行为受唤醒系统、行为抑制系统（BIS）和行为激活系统（BAS）的影响，BIS处理与厌恶刺激有关的信号，BAS处理与奖励有关的信号。精神病理被认为是这些系统失衡的结果。我们初步支持的主要假设是，在觉醒和/或情感反应方面的明显缺陷是药物滥用与焦虑和去抑制/反社会人格之间关系的基础。具体来说，我们将检查以下情况：1)仅药物滥用；2)药物滥用和共病焦虑症；3)药物滥用和反社会人格障碍；3)没有精神疾病。惊吓增强和自主神经系统（ANS）对厌恶刺激威胁唤醒的测量；2. ANS对奖励和取消奖励的反应；3. 静息脑电图的不对称性；4. BAS和BIS活动的心理生理测量与焦虑和去抑制/反社会行为相关的气质特征之间的关系；5. 后代性别对亲代史与后代心理生理、气质及临床特征关系的影响；6. 使用临床和心理生理测量相结合的易感性表型指标。

This application requests funding for a four-year study to investigate psychophysiological markers for substance abuse in children ages 13-17 who are at high risk for substance abuse by virtue of their parental history for this condition. The rationale for the present proposal is to search for psychophysiological abnormalities associated with the two main dimensions of personality linked to substance abuse, that is, negative affectivity/anxiety and disinhibited/antisocial behaviors. Theorists have proposed a biobehavioral model based on responses to aversive and appetitive stimuli to explain the neurophysiological basis of motivational behaviors and to account for childhood mental disorders. The model posits that motivational behaviors is influenced by an arousal system, and by a behavioral inhibition system (BIS), which processes signals related to aversive stimuli, and a behavioral activation system (BAS), which processes signal related to rewards. Psychopathology is assumed to result from an imbalance within these systems. The major hypothesis for which we have preliminary support is that distinct deficits in arousal and/or affective responses underlie the relationship between substance abuse and both anxiety and disinhibited/antisocial personality. Specifically we will examine the following in children of parents with 1) substance abuse only, 2) substance abuse and comorbid anxiety disorder, 3) substance abuse and antisocial personality disorder, and 3) no psychiatric disorders: 1. startle potentiation and autonomic nervous system (ANS) measures of arousal to threat of aversive stimuli; 2. ANS responses to reward and to the removal of reward; 3. Asymmetry of resting EEG; 4. the association between psychophysiological measures of BAS and BIS activity and temperamental characteristics associated with anxiety and disinhibited/antisocial behavior; 5. the effects of the gender of the offspring in the relationship between parental history and the offspring's psychophysiological, temperamental, and clinical characteristics; 6. phenotypic indices of vulnerability using combinations of clinical and psychophysiological measures.