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，增加酒精和其他药物使用的风险。ADHD的特征是行为和注意力失控或控制不足，这些控制缺陷被怀疑是导致这一人群酗酒风险增加的原因。此外，酒精本身因其对参与行为和注意力调节的认知过程的急性损害作用而闻名。然而，很少有研究探讨ADHD患者的抑制和注意力缺陷如何导致对酒精急性解除抑制作用的敏感性提高。由于ADHD患者有酗酒的风险，因此重要的是要检查这种潜在的对药物的敏感性增加，以及测试如何降低对酒精的控制可能会增加这一人群中滥用的风险。拟议的项目将检查敏感性酒精诱导的增加，在去抑制和注意力偏向酒精相关的刺激在非依赖性成人多动症和对照组的非依赖性健康成人，以及检查这些机制的敏感性的个体差异有关的滥用潜力。该研究将测试控制剂量的酒精对测量抑制控制和注意力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。研究结果将提供一个了解如何易感性酒精的急性行为损害的影响可能会赋予酒精依赖的风险增加饮酒者的特点是赤字的行为控制，促进持续的模式滥用酗酒。这将提供关于药物急性作用促成其滥用可能性的机制的重要信息。

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.