Stimuli that encourage alcoholics to drink again lose their effect after six months of abstinence, as revealed by a study carried out by researchers from the 12 de Octubre Hospital and the Complutense University of Madrid, whose findings include Addictive behaviors and collect Europe Press.
This tendency to focus attention on alcohol-related stimuli is called attentional bias. Some of the most frequent stimuli are places, such as the park or barwhere the patient drank you it smells like certain drinks or those places.
“Attentional bias is a relapse risk factorsince the individual is constantly attracted to these signals, which can activate consumption thoughts and intense desires. Its reduction can be an important therapeutic objective in hospital programs”, underlined the researcher of the Department of Psychobiology and Methodology in Behavioral Sciences of the UCM and the Research Institute of the Hospital 12 de Octubre i+12, Berta Escudero.
To carry out this study, 33 patients were recruited from the alcohol withdrawal program at the 12 de Octubre Hospital, in the dual pathology unit (psychiatry department), as well as 43 controls from the general population. All were assessed at two time points, between one and three months of abstinence and at six months.
As the researchers explain, with this approach, clinical interventions could include techniques such as attention retraining to help patients shift their attention away from alcohol cues or behavioral therapies focused on response modification automatically to these signals.
Measuring attentional bias may also be a useful tool for identifying patients at risk of relapse. “Those who have a more pronounced attentional bias toward alcohol may need additional monitoring and support,” Escudero added.
Finally, knowledge of these processes can help families better understand and create a safer environment that minimizes exposure to these triggers. In the case of patients, this is an incentive to work on self-regulation and management of their impulses, as well as to work with their therapists to develop personalized strategies for managing high-risk stimuli and situations. .
General attentional bias and alcohol bias
Another novelty in this article is the evaluation of two types of attentional bias, general and alcoholic. The first refers to difficulty directing attention to general, non-alcohol-related stimuli. Meanwhile, alcoholic refers to the attraction to alcohol-related cues (wine, pub, hangover, etc.) and is characteristic of alcohol use disorder.
The director of the study, Laura Orío, pointed out that the attentional bias towards alcohol improves during the abstinence process in patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder, while it does not This is not the same with general attentional bias. “This opens up new areas of research to explore how these two types of biases evolve and interact,” he emphasized.
Among the next steps of the study, the researchers include long-term follow-up of patients or comparison with other addictions to substances such as opiates or nicotine, among others.
