Effects of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement on reward responsiveness and opioid cue-reactivity

RATIONALE: Dysregulated reward processing is a hallmark feature of drug addiction; however scant research has evaluated restructuring reward processing in the context of addiction treatment. OBJECTIVES: We examined effects of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) on reward responsiveness (RR) and opioid cue-reactivity in a sample of chronic pain patients with opioid use problems. We previously reported that MORE decreased pain, opioid misuse and craving relative to a social support control group (SG). Here we examined whether these outcomes were linked to changes in RR in a subset of participants. METHODS: Participants were chronic pain patients (71% women, age = 46.6±13.9) who received MORE (n=20) or SG (n=29). RR was measured before and after 8 weeks of treatment via heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) responses during a dot-probe task that included opioid-, pain-related and natural reward stimuli, as well as craving ratings. RESULTS: The MORE group, who reported decreased opioid misuse and opioid craving during treatment, evidenced less subjective opioid cue-reactivity, greater HR decelerations, and greater increases in HRV to all cues after treatment compared to the SG; HR and HRV effects were most pronounced for natural reward cues. Within the MORE group, HR deceleration to natural reward cues was correlated with increased subjective arousal to the cues, whereas HR deceleration to opioid cues was correlated with decreased subjective arousal. Effects of MORE on craving were mediated by enhanced RR. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that during treatment with MORE, cardiac-autonomic responsiveness to non-drug reward increases, while reactivity to opioid reward decreases. Studies are needed to discern whether changes in RR were a result or a determinant of reductions in opioid misuse and craving. RR may play a role in addiction treatment

Elaborated Intrusion Theory: A cognitive-emotional theory of food craving

A clear understanding of the cognitive-emotional processes underpinning desires to overconsume foods and adopt sedentary lifestyles can inform the development of more effective interventions to promote healthy eating and physical activity. The Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desires offers a framework that can help in this endeavor through its emphases on the roles of intrusive thoughts and elaboration of multisensory imagery. There is now substantial evidence that tasks that compete for limited working memory resources with food-related imagery can reduce desires to eat that food, and that positive imagery can promote functional behavior. Meditation mindfulness can also short-circuit elaboration of dysfunctional cognition. Functional Decision Making is an approach that applies laboratory-based research on desire, to provide a motivational intervention to establish and entrench behavior changes, so healthy eating and physical activity become everyday habits