The study of impulsivity on cocaine/crack addiction and gambling disorder: neurocognitive and neuroimaging aspects
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Impulsivity is a characteristic shared by many psychiatric disorders, such as the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia and drug addiction. Although the impact of impulsivity on the development and maintenance of these disorders is well stablished, its underlying mechanisms are still not well understood. The present study evaluated both impulsivity and executive functioning (EF) on cocaine and crack addiction, through the analysis of correlations between different measures of impulsivity and its relationship with the treatment with cognitive-behavioral therapy. The neurobiology of impulsivity and its relation with other measures was also investigated in this study on gambling disorder, a behavioral addiction. These studies allowed a broad overview on the role of impulsivity on both drug-related and gambling disorders. As part of our results we observed higher levels of impulsivity in drug dependent individuals in comparison to healthy subjects. However this result was not consistent across in all impulsivity measures, with higher differences being observed on the self-report measure (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale). Additionally, there was a difference in the neural response on a task of inhibitory control (the Go/No-go task) between pathological gamblers (PG) and healthy subjects. On both cocaine/crack dependent subjects and PG, the several different measures of impulsivity showed little correlation with EF and with the BOLD signal (of the functional magnetic resonance imaging). Therefore we concluded that impulsivity is a prominent feature on both studied disorders, and it can be altered with treatment and abstinence. Nevertheless, it is important to use different measures to evaluate impulsivity, as it is not a unitary concept.
Author: Ramos, Anna Carolina [UNIFESP]
Language: Portuguese
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7120632705