Alcohol Sensitivity and Abuse Potential in ADHD

描述（由申请人提供）：有相当多的证据表明，外化障碍，如多动症，会增加酒精和其他药物使用的风险。ADHD的特点是行为和注意力不受抑制或控制不足，这些控制缺陷被怀疑是导致该人群酒精滥用风险增加的原因。此外，众所周知，酒精本身对涉及行为和注意力调节的认知过程有严重的损害作用。然而，很少有研究调查多动症患者的抑制和注意力缺陷是如何导致对酒精急性去抑制作用的敏感性提高的。因为患有多动症的人有酗酒的风险，所以检查这种对药物潜在的高敏感性是很重要的，同时也要测试对酒精反应的控制能力降低是如何增加这一人群滥用的风险的。拟议的项目将检查患有多动症的非依赖性成年人和一组非依赖性健康成年人对酒精相关刺激的解除抑制和注意偏倚增加的敏感性，并检查与滥用潜力有关的这些机制敏感性的个体差异。该研究将测试控制剂量的酒精对测量抑制控制和注意偏差的认知表现任务的影响，并检查这些措施对随意饮酒的贡献。这一发现将有助于理解，对酒精的急性行为损害效应的易感性如何可能会增加饮酒者的酒精依赖风险，这些饮酒者的特征是行为控制缺陷，从而促进持续的酗酒模式。这将提供有关药物的急性作用如何导致其可能被滥用的机制的重要信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is considerable evidence that externalizing disorders, such as ADHD, increase risk for alcohol and other drug use. ADHD is characterized by disinhibited or undercontrolled behavior and attention, and these deficits in control are suspected to contribute to the increased risk for alcohol abuse in this population. Further, alcohol itself is well-known for its acute impairing effects on cognitive processes involved in the regulation of behavior and attention. Yet, little research has examined how inhibitory and attentional deficits in individuals with ADHD might lead to heightened sensitivity to alcohol's acute disinhibiting effects. Because individuals with ADHD are at risk for alcohol abuse, it is important to examine this potentially heightened sensitivity to the drug, as well as to test how reduced control in response to alcohol might confer increased risk for abuse within this population. The proposed project will examine sensitivity to alcohol-induced increases in disinhibition and attentional bias towards alcohol-related stimuli in non-dependent adults with ADHD and a comparison group of non-dependent healthy adults as well as examine individual differences in sensitivity of these mechanisms in relation to abuse potential. The study will test the effects of controlled doses of alcohol on cognitive performance tasks that measure inhibitory control and attentional bias and examine the contribution of these measures to ad lib alcohol consumption. The findings will provide an understanding of how susceptibility to alcohol's acute behavioral-impairing effects might confer increased risk for alcohol dependence in drinkers characterized by deficits in behavioral control by promoting a continued pattern of abusive binge drinking. This will provide important information concerning mechanisms through which the acute effects of the drug contribute to its abuse potential.