Appetitive Motivation and Regulatory Processes in Adolescent Ketamine Users

Ketamine has remained the most commonly used illicit drug among adolescents in Taiwan. A dual process model proposes that addictive behaviors develop in adolescents as a result of an imbalance between an appetitive, approach-oriented system (implicit and explicit attitudes) and a regulatory executiv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Substance use & misuse 2021, Vol.56 (11), p.1616-1623
Main Authors: Chang, Hao-Han, Huang, Chieh-Liang, Ho, Ming-Chou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Adolescent
Adolescents
Aversive
Drug abuse
Drugs
Educational systems
Executive Function
Gambling
Group performance
Humans
Illicit Drugs
Imbalance
implicit attitude
Ketamine
Motivation
outcome expectancy
Priming
Substance use disorder
Substance-Related Disorders
Taiwan
Teenagers
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Summary:Ketamine has remained the most commonly used illicit drug among adolescents in Taiwan. A dual process model proposes that addictive behaviors develop in adolescents as a result of an imbalance between an appetitive, approach-oriented system (implicit and explicit attitudes) and a regulatory executive system (cool and hot executive functions). We aimed to examine the appetitive and regulatory processes in adolescent ketamine users in comparison to matched healthy adolescents. Method: The participants were 30 adolescent ketamine users and 32 nondrug controls, matched with gender, age, education years, and education systems. Both groups completed the affective priming task (APT), the stop-signal task (SST), an Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), and finally a Drug Use Disorders Identification Test: Extended (DUDIT-E). Results: The controls had higher positive and negative outcome expectancy with respect to using ketamine compared to the adolescent ketamine users. There was no significant between-group performance difference in APT. The adolescent ketamine users may have shown marginally poorer performance compared to the controls in hot executive functions (IGT), but their cold executive functions (SST) remained intact. Conclusion: The current study reported that the adolescent ketamine users may not have imbalanced dual processes (biased appetitive motivation and impaired regulatory executive process). A different therapeutic focus on adolescent ketamine users may be developed accordingly. More advocacies on ketamine's aversive outcomes are needed, particularly on campus in order to reduce substance misuse.
ISSN:1082-6084
1532-2491
DOI:10.1080/10826084.2021.1942055