Social Processing in Aging Cocaine Smokers

描述（由申请人提供）：社会处理缺陷，社会行为背后的神经生物学和心理过程，越来越多地被认为是一系列严重精神疾病的关键功能成分。虽然长期吸毒者有记录的社会问题，很少有人知道他们的社会处理能力。药物滥用者存在社会处理缺陷可能会产生重大影响，包括日常功能障碍，将人际关系作为药物替代品的问题，以及重要的是，减少药物使用心理治疗的保留和成功。社会处理缺陷的识别可以导致有针对性的药物或心理干预来解决它们。该项目将研究老年人长期可卡因吸烟者的社会处理，这是一个越来越多的物质滥用者群体，对他们知之甚少：我们选择这个群体是为了最大限度地发挥潜在的研究影响，因为长期使用可卡因与大脑区域的微妙变化有关，这些区域有助于社会功能。这一人群在很大程度上还没有被调查，除了我们小组的一项试点研究，这将是第一个关于老年可卡因吸烟者心理功能的系统研究。我们将采用一种创新的多模式方法来评估老年可卡因吸烟者的社会处理，我们可以通过我们的可卡因实验室随时访问他们，老年可卡因使用者经常自愿参加。50至60岁之间的常规（每周两次）、长期（使用20年）可卡因吸烟者（N=20）将接受受控实验室社会处理测试，并在住院4天后提供日常社会功能的自我和社区观察员报告。实验室措施将包括情绪识别的标准化测试，要求从面部表情中识别他人的情绪。我们还将在功能磁共振成像协议中使用社会奖励和社会威胁的标准化探针来评估处理社会欲望和厌恶材料的大脑指标。将招募三个对照组。其中两组将在年龄和人口统计学因素方面与老年可卡因组相匹配：其中一组还将与使用酒精、大麻和烟草的老年可卡因使用者相匹配（N=20），另一组将是健康对照组（N=20）。通过这种方法，我们将把与可卡因使用相关的影响与其他风险因素相关的影响分开。第三个比较组将是年轻的可卡因吸烟者（18-35岁~ N=20），与年龄较大的可卡因吸烟者在人口统计学和当前可卡因使用方面相匹配。我们假设，与对照组相比，老年可卡因吸烟者将具有：1）较低的日常社会功能2）较低的情绪识别3）对社会奖励的神经反应降低4）对社会威胁信号的神经反应增加。研究结果将有助于为不断增长的老年可卡因吸烟者制定有效的、有针对性的治疗方法的经验基础。更广泛地说，该项目采用了在相关领域得到验证但未在吸毒者中得到验证的技术，其结果将证明这些概念在成瘾中的实用性，并指导更大规模研究计划的发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Deficits in social processing, the neurobiological and psychological processes underlying social behavior, are increasingly recognized as key functional components of a range of serious psychiatric conditions. Although chronic drug users have documented social problems, little is known about their social processing capacities. The presence of social processing deficits in drug abusers would likely have substantial implications, including daily function difficulties, problems accessing relationships as rewarding alternatives to drugs, and, importantly, reduced retention and success in psychological treatments for drug use. Identification of social processing deficits can lead to targeted pharmacological or psychological interventions to address them. This project will study social processing in aging, long-term cocaine smokers, a growing group of substance abusers about whom little is known: We have chosen this group to maximize potential study impact and because chronic cocaine use is associated with subtle alterations to brain regions subserving social function. This population remains largely uninvestigated~ with the exception of a pilot study by our group, this would be the first systematic research on psychological functioning in older cocaine smokers. We will employ an innovative, multimodal method to assess social processing in older cocaine smokers, to whom we have ready access via our cocaine laboratory, where older cocaine users regularly volunteer. Regular (e twice/week), long- term (e 20 years use) cocaine smokers between 50 and 60 years old (N=20) will undergo controlled laboratory social processing tests as well as providing self and community observer reports of day-to-day social function following a 4-day inpatient stay. Laboratory measures will include a standardized test of emotion identification, requiring identification of others' emotions from facial expressions. We will also use standardized probes of social reward and social threat in an fMRI protocol to assess brain indicators of processing socially appetitive and aversive material. Three comparison groups will be recruited. Two will be matched for age and demographic factors with the older cocaine group: one of these will also be matched to older cocaine users for alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use (N=20)~ the other will be healthy controls (N=20). With this approach, we will separate effects associated specifically with cocaine use from those related to other risk factors. The third comparison group will be younger cocaine smokers (18-35 years old~ N=20) matched to older cocaine smokers for demographics and current cocaine use. We hypothesize that older cocaine smokers will have: 1) lower day- to-day social function~ 2) lower emotion identification~ 3) decreased neural responses to social reward~ and 4) increased neural response to social threat signals compared to controls. Results will contribute to the empirical basis for developing effective, targeted treatments for the growing population of older cocaine smokers. More broadly, results of this project, which employs techniques validated in related fields but not in drug users, will demonstrate the utility of these concepts in addiction and guide the development of a larger research program.