URGE COPING AND ALCOHOL-RELATED INFORMATION PROCESSING

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APPLICANT'S ABSTRACT: Recent cognitive models of substance use and abuse have drawn greater attention to the view that drinking behavior may be influenced by multiple cognitive systems. These models suggest that processes that underlie conscious awareness of urges or thoughts about drinking may interact with, but operate independently of, other cognitive processes that underlie drinking behavior. The present proposal adopts this cognitive processing approach to investigate how efforts to control response to alcohol cues may influence drinking behavior among those at risk for alcohol related harm (hazardous drinkers). Urges and thoughts about drinking are often a source of considerable difficulty for those attempting to control their alcohol use. Consequently cognitive-behavioral interventions and treatment programs typically involve skill-training to help individuals manage their subjective responses to drinking triggers or cues. Despite the broad use of urge coping skills, there is little known about the mechanisms by which these strategies may be effective for reducing hazardous drinking or the conditions under which they may be most for reducing hazardous drinking or the conditions under which they may be most useful. This project seeks to examine how efforts to control urges to drink affects the processing of alcohol-related information among hazardous drinkers. Results of this study will contribute to our understanding of the effects of cognitive control strategies on hazardous drinking behavior and provide information on the conditions under which cognitive strategies may be most effective in controlling response to alcohol cues. The proposition that cognitive-self regulation strategies have distinct effects on the concurrent and subsequent processing of different types of alcohol-related information has considerable implications for understanding self-guided attempts to change and for constructing more effective interventions. This FIRST award proposal is designed to provide a first step in studying these issues through examination of the effects of urge control strategies on subsequent drinking behavior and alcohol-related cognition.