Social Processing in Aging Cocaine Smokers

描述(由申请人提供)：社会加工缺陷，即潜在的社会行为的神经生物学和心理过程，越来越被认为是一系列严重精神疾病的关键功能组成部分。尽管慢性吸毒者有记录的社会问题，但人们对他们的社会处理能力知之甚少。吸毒者社会加工缺陷的存在可能会产生重大影响，包括日常功能困难、作为有价值的替代药物而获取关系的问题，以及更重要的是，减少药物使用的心理治疗的保留率和成功率。识别社会加工缺陷可以导致有针对性的药物或心理干预来解决这些问题。这个项目将研究老年、长期吸食可卡因的人的社会过程，这是一个日益增长的、鲜为人知的药物滥用者群体：我们选择这一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服从社会功能的大脑区域的细微变化有关。这一人群在很大程度上仍未进行调查--除了我们小组的一项试点研究外，这将是第一次对老年可卡因吸烟者的心理功能进行系统研究。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交过程，我们可以通过我们的可卡因实验室随时接触到他们，老年可卡因使用者经常在那里志愿工作。50至60岁(N=20)的定期(每周两次)、长期(使用20年)可卡因吸烟者将接受受控的实验室社会处理测试，并在住院4天后提供自我和社区观察员的日常社会功能报告。实验室措施将包括标准化的情绪识别测试，要求从面部表情识别他人的情绪。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测器来评估处理社交嗜好和厌恶材料的大脑指示器。将招募三个对照小组。其中两组将在年龄和人口统计学因素上与老年可卡因组相匹配：其中一组也将与使用酒精、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，我们将具体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。第三个对照组将是年龄较小的吸食可卡因的人(18-35岁~N=20)，在人口统计学和目前吸食可卡因的情况下与年长的吸食可卡因的人相匹配。我们假设，与对照组相比，老年可卡因吸烟者将具有：1)日常社会功能降低~2)情感识别降低~3)对社会奖励的神经反应减少~4)对社会威胁信号的神经反应增强。结果将有助于为日益增长的老年可卡因吸烟者开发有效的、有针对性的治疗方法的经验基础。更广泛地说，这个项目的结果将证明这些概念在成瘾中的实用性，并指导更大规模的研究计划的发展。该项目使用的技术在相关领域得到了验证，但在吸毒者中没有得到验证。 公共卫生相关性：项目说明：社会技能缺陷被认为是许多精神疾病的一个重要方面，然而，吸毒者的社会能力在很大程度上仍未得到研究。这个项目使用一种新颖的、多维的方法来调查越来越多的吸毒者的社交技能，这些吸毒者对他们的情况知之甚少--年长的、长期吸食可卡因的人。这项研究的结果可以用来改进对老年可卡因吸烟者的治疗，并为研究社交技能在成瘾和戒瘾中的作用提供一个模型。

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. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Project Narrative: Deficits in social skills are recognized to be an important aspect of many mental illnesses, however, social capacities in drug abusers remain largely unstudied. This project uses a novel, multidimensional approach to investigate social skills in a growing group of drug users about whom little is known-older, long-term cocaine smokers. Results of this research could be used to improve treatment for older cocaine smokers as well as providing a model for studying the role of social skills in addiction and recovery from addiction.