Alcohol Sensitivity and Abuse Potential in ADHD

描述(由申请人提供)：有相当多的证据表明，外在性障碍，如ADHD，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约束或控制不足，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之一。此外，众所周知，酒精本身对行为和注意力调节所涉及的认知过程具有严重的损害作用。然而，很少有研究研究ADHD患者的抑制力和注意力缺陷如何导致对酒精的急性解除抑制作用的敏感度提高。由于ADHD患者有酗酒的风险，因此很重要的一点是检查这种潜在的对药物的高度敏感性，以及测试对酒精的反应减少控制如何可能增加这一人群中的滥用风险。这项拟议的项目将检测非依赖型ADHD成人和非依赖型健康成年人对酒精诱导的去抑制增加的敏感性和对酒精相关刺激的注意偏差，并检查这些机制与滥用潜力相关的敏感性的个体差异。这项研究将测试受控剂量酒精对认知表现任务的影响，这些任务衡量抑制控制和注意力偏差，并检查这些措施对即兴饮酒的贡献。这些发现将有助于理解，对酒精的急性行为损害效应的易感性如何通过促进持续的滥用狂饮模式，增加以行为控制缺陷为特征的饮酒者的酒精依赖风险。这将提供有关该药物的急性影响导致其滥用潜力的机制的重要信息。

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.