Not all drugs are created equal: impaired future thinking in opiate, but not alcohol, users

Episodic future thinking refers to the ability to travel forward in time to pre-experience an event. Although future thinking has been intimately linked with self and identity, to our knowledge, no prior research has compared episodic future thinking in populations with different substance use disor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental brain research 2018-11, Vol.236 (11), p.2971-2981
Main Authors: Moustafa, Ahmed A., Morris, Alejandro N., Nandrino, Jean Louis, Misiak, Błażej, Szewczuk-Bogusławska, Monika, Frydecka, Dorota, El Haj, Mohamad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Alcohol
Alcoholics
Alcoholism - psychology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cognitive science
Drug dependence
Drug use
Drug Users - psychology
Female
Heroin Dependence - psychology
Humans
Imagination
Male
Memory, Episodic
Middle Aged
Narcotics
Neurology
Neuropsychological Tests
Neurosciences
Rehabilitation
Research Article
Substance use disorder
Thinking
Young Adult
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Summary:Episodic future thinking refers to the ability to travel forward in time to pre-experience an event. Although future thinking has been intimately linked with self and identity, to our knowledge, no prior research has compared episodic future thinking in populations with different substance use disorders. This study investigates whether there are differences in episodic future thinking between these alcohol and opiate users. The study recruited participants who were on the opiate substitution program ( n  = 31) and individuals who had been diagnosed with alcohol dependence ( n  = 21) from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Drug and Health Services. Healthy controls ( n  = 23) were recruited via Royal Prince Alfred Hospital databases and the general community. Past and future thinking was measured using four cue words. After each cue word, participants rated their phenomenological experience (e.g. emotion, reliving experience). Results indicated that alcohol-dependent individuals performed significantly higher in episodic future thinking compared to opiate users. These findings indicate that not all substance use disorder groups share similar episodic thinking capabilities. Our results suggest that the self-projection component of rehabilitation programs may have to be tailored to the different episodic construction abilities found in substance use disorder groups.
ISSN:0014-4819
1432-1106
DOI:10.1007/s00221-018-5355-7