The effect of cognitive control on addiction relapse

<p dir="ltr"><b>Background and Aims</b>: When entering substance abuse treatment centers, some individuals with substance use disorder relapse whilst others do not. Predicting who is likely to relapse or not would enable for more effective treatment by targeting those who are at increased risk. Previous research would indicate that aspects related to cognitive control including cognitive bias, inhibitory control, and working memory may all be strong indicators of relapse likelihood. Therefore, this paper explores whether aspects of cognitive control can predict relapse likelihood. </p><p dir="ltr"><b>Method</b>: Participants were patients in substance treatment centers who were abstaining. They were tested on measures of cognitive bias (REsT), inhibitory control (go/no-go), and working memory (nBack). A follow-up survey was then issued after a twelve-week period to ascertain whether participants had remained abstinent or if they had relapsed.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Results</b>: Relative to abstainers, individuals who relapsed had shown significant impairments in working memory and inhibitory control at baseline. They had also demonstrated increased preoccupation with substance-related stimuli as indicated by the cognitive bias measure.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Conclusions</b>: These findings demonstrate that deficits in cognitive control contribute to the maintenance of substance use disorder and substance usage. The results indicate that inhibitory and working memory deficits may contribute to initial engagement in substance abuse, followed by an increase in cognitive bias and further deficits in inhibitory control and WM contributing to an increased likelihood of relapse. This suggests that decreased cognitive control may increase relapse likelihood.</p>