Mapping Recovery: A Qualitative Node Map Approach to Understanding Factors Proximal to Relapse Among Adolescents in Recovery

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Despite data suggesting that current substance use disorder treatments are largely effective in reducing substance use, most adolescents in SUD treatment experience relapse after finishing treatment. Understanding the factors proximal to relapse is crucial to understanding the course of substance use disorder and how best to improve recovery among adolescents. The current study represents part of a novel line of research using qualitative data analysis to examine these factors. Data for the present study were 200 de-identified node-maps, completed by high school students at Hope Academy, a recovery high school in Indianapolis, Indiana. The reported age in this sample ranged from 14-20 years (64.1% male, 89.1% White), with a mean age of 16.8 years (SD = 1.9 years). After a four-phase process of qualitative data sorting, primary people, places, and things most frequently described included using with others (n=153, 76.5%), away from home (n=156, 78.0%), and in response to negative affect (n=93, 48.4%). Eleven relapse pathways emerged: escaping (n=16), self-medicating (n=3), coping with tragedy (n=5), critical mass (n=6), unexpected activation (n=8), unexpected offer (n=22), planned use (n=19), resistant to recovery (n=5), not in recovery (n=22), passive agency (n=30), and acting out (n=15). Recovery is a system made up of many interrelated parts, including those related to the individual person in recovery, their thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and emotions; and those related to external factors, their environment, adverse life events, and the actions of other people. By considering the pathways together for their common features, they can each be said to represent one of three critical failures related to those three overarching facets of the system: failure to cope, failure to guard against temptation, and failure of belief. Identifying these overarching failures in the system is helpful because the failures contain in themselves the seeds of their solution, so by examining them as critical components to a relapse event, it may be possible to gain insight into how to prevent the same type of relapses from occurring in the future

Translating Preclinical Models of Alcohol Seeking and Consumption into the Human Laboratory using Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration Paradigms

Preclinical models of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) have advanced theoretical, mechanistic, and pharmacological study of the human condition. “Liking” and “wanting” behaviors reflect core processes underlying several models of AUD. However, the development and application of translational models of these preclinical approaches are at an incipient stage. The goal of this study was to examine how intravenous free-access and progressive-ratio, operant-response human alcohol self-administration paradigms can be used as translational human model parallel of preclinical “liking” and “wanting”. Participants were 40 adults (Mean age=23.7, SD=2.0; 45% Female) of European descent who reported 12.6 drinking days (SD=5.2) out of the previous 30 (average= 4.1 drinks/drinking day (SD=1.7)). Individuals diverged in their alcohol self-administration behavior, such that free-access and progressive-ratio paradigm outcomes were not significantly correlated (p=.44). Free-access alcohol seeking was related to enjoying alcohol (p.70) to preferred level of breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) in the free-access session, a measure of liking alcohol. Family history of alcoholism, disinhibition traits, and recent drinking history were significantly related (p’s<.05) to alcohol seeking in the progressive-ratio paradigm, a measure of wanting alcohol. We conclude that intravenous alcohol self-administration paradigms show promise in modeling behaviors that characterize and parallel alcohol “liking” and “wanting” in preclinical models. These paradigms provide a translational link between preclinical methods and clinical trials

Mapping Recovery: A Qualitative Node Map Approach to Understanding Factors Proximal to Relapse Among Adolescents in Recovery

Despite data suggesting that current substance use disorder treatments are largely effective in reducing substance use, most adolescents in SUD treatment experience relapse after finishing treatment. Understanding the factors proximal to relapse is crucial to understanding the course of substance use disorder and how best to improve recovery among adolescents. The current study represents part of a novel line of research using qualitative data analysis to examine these factors. Data for the present study were 200 de-identified node-maps, completed by high school students at Hope Academy, a recovery high school in Indianapolis, Indiana. The reported age in this sample ranged from 14-20 years (64.1% male, 89.1% White), with a mean age of 16.8 years (SD = 1.9 years). After a four-phase process of qualitative data sorting, primary people, places, and things most frequently described included using with others (n=153, 76.5%), away from home (n=156, 78.0%), and in response to negative affect (n=93, 48.4%). Eleven relapse pathways emerged: escaping (n=16), self-medicating (n=3), coping with tragedy (n=5), critical mass (n=6), unexpected activation (n=8), unexpected offer (n=22), planned use (n=19), resistant to recovery (n=5), not in recovery (n=22), passive agency (n=30), and acting out (n=15). Recovery is a system made up of many interrelated parts, including those related to the individual person in recovery, their thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and emotions; and those related to external factors, their environment, adverse life events, and the actions of other people. By considering the pathways together for their common features, they can each be said to represent one of three critical failures related to those three overarching facets of the system: failure to cope, failure to guard against temptation, and failure of belief. Identifying these overarching failures in the system is helpful because the failures contain in themselves the seeds of their solution, so by examining them as critical components to a relapse event, it may be possible to gain insight into how to prevent the same type of relapses from occurring in the future

Recommendations for applying a multi-dimensional model of impulsive personality to diagnosis and treatment

Abstract The UPPS-P Model of Impulsive Personality, a prominent model of impulsive personality derived from the Five Factor Model of Personality, is a multi-dimensional model of impulsive personality that consists of negative urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseveration, sensation seeking, and positive urgency. The UPPS-P model has highlighted the importance of separating multidimensional traits due to the specificity of these traits corresponding to different risk behaviors. The goal of the current review paper is to make recommendations on how to apply the UPPS-P Model of Impulsive Personality, to diagnosis of and treatment for psychopathology. However, despite impulsivity being one of the most frequently used criteria for a number of clinical disorders, our review of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-5 found that the UPPS-P traits are not well represented in the diagnostic criteria, which we propose limits inferences about etiology and treatment targets. Additionally, research has largely focused on the importance of these traits for risk models; our review of the literature applying the UPPS-P traits to treatment processes and outcomes concluded that this area is not yet well studied. Here, we propose the specific application of the UPPS-P model to improve diagnosis and increase treatment effectiveness

Shared Neural Correlates Underlying Addictive Disorders and Negative Urgency

Negative urgency is a personality trait reflecting the tendency to act rashly in response to extreme negative emotions and is considered a transdiagnostic endophenotype for problematic levels of addictive behaviors. Recent research has begun to identify the neural correlates of negative urgency, many of which appear to overlap with neural circuitry underlying addictive disorders associated with negative urgency. The goal of this qualitative review is to summarize the extant literature concerning the neural correlates of negative urgency, to compare these correlates with those implicated with addictive disorders, and to propose new ways to begin to leverage such findings in treatment and intervention approaches. We also address current limitations in the field and make recommendations for areas for future growth in this research domain. Patterns of structure and function in the ventral striatum, frontal regions, such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and amygdala are common across addictive disorders and are related to both real-world risky behaviors and self-report measures of negative urgency. We propose that the time has come to move past considering this trait and these disorders as completely separate entities, and instead for the field to consider how general patterns of convergence across these disorders can lead to a more transdiagnostic approach to treatment and intervention. We suggest future work utilize these convergent patterns in the development of animal models of negative urgency, in the identification and testing of prime pharmacological and physiological interventions, and as objective biomarkers to be used when testing behavioral, pharmacological, and physiological intervention effectiveness. Little empirical work has been done to date in these areas and advances in these nascent fields would advance understanding and applications of the neuroscience of negative urgency

Positive urgency worsens the impact of normative feedback on 21st birthday drinking

Background: The 21st birthday is associated with more alcohol consumption and negative consequences than any other occasion. The current study investigated how positive urgency, the tendency to act rashly in response to positive emotions, influences 21st birthday drinking and the effectiveness of a single event text message intervention designed to reduce 21st birthday drinking and related negative consequences. Methods: Participants were 183 undergraduate students (69% female, 86% white) about to turn 21. Participants were randomly assigned to either a text message intervention or control condition. Those in the intervention condition received one text message the day before their 21st birthday that provided personalized normative feedback and one text message on the day of their 21st birthday. Participants reported actual alcohol consumption the day after their 21st birthday celebration. Results: Hierarchical linear regression found that, after controlling for sex, intervention condition, and planned drinking, positive urgency was associated with greater number of drinks (β = .15, p = .031) and drinking problems (β = .25, p = .001). A moderated-mediation model was significant (B = 0.42, CI95 [.10, .76]): At high levels of positive urgency, the intervention condition was associated with drinking more than planned, which significantly mediated the relationship between intervention and alcohol-related consequences; the mediation was not significant at mean or low levels of positive urgency. Conclusions: These findings are the first to link positive urgency with 21st birthday drinking and to empirically demonstrate that positive urgency negatively impacts the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at reducing alcohol consumption