Work

Anti-saccade error rates are associated with somatic depressive symptoms in cocaine use disorder

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Background: Inhibitory control deficits are associated with cocaine use disorder (CUD) development and maintenance. Additionally, drug use and inhibitory control can be negatively affected by depressive symptoms, including somatic factors like sleep disturbance and fatigue. Aim: The current study assessed the relationship between inhibitory control and depressive symptoms among individuals initiating CUD treatment. We examined associations among anti-saccade response inhibition performance, total scores on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and individual BDI-II items. Methods: N = 101 patients enrolled in a clinical trial for CUD completed drug-specific anti-saccade and depression (BDI-II) measures prior to treatment. Generalized linear models tested the associations of anti-saccade error rate with stimulus type (cocaine, neutral) and with BDI-II total score. Penalized regression then modeled the error rate among the entire set of BDI-II items to select the most relevant symptom correlates. Results: Anti-saccade error rates were higher on cocaine relative to neutral trials ( p < 0.001), confirming attentional bias. Error rates were positively associated with BDI-II total scores, controlling for demographic and recent cocaine use variables ( p < 0.001); this association did not differ by stimulus content ( p = 0.742). Among BDI-II items, Loss of Pleasure, Crying, Agitation, Changes in Sleeping Pattern, Concentration Difficulty, Tiredness, and Loss of Interest in Sex were retained by the penalized regression of error rates. Conclusions: Attentional bias was drug-specific, and overall error rates were strongly related to somatic factors underlying depression in CUD. The association between inhibitory control and depression in CUD may be driven by physiological symptomatology, including sleep impairment and fatigue. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02896712.

Source: Journal of Psychopharmacology

DOI: 10.1177/02698811251399579