Attention Bias In Heroin Addicts Of Different Craving Levels

With the development of society, the drug problem becomes more and more serious. In China, Heroin addiction is the largest proportion in drug abusers which is different from that marijuana and cocaine prevail more extensively abroad. Due to its strong toxicity, heroin easy to addiction but hard to quit, the relapse rate is extremely high. Research on heroin cognitive processing mechanism makes a contribution to the construction of Addiction theory and clinical Practice of abstaining heroin.Craving defined as an intense and compelling urge or desire for the experienced substance, is the main characteristics of substance addiction,which is likely to be experienced by most individuals with substance dependence. There is attentional bias on drug cues in the heroin addicts by the influence of psychoactive drug substance, which was demonstrated in several kinds of addiction substance such as marijuana and cocaine. As the two important factors of relapse, what is the relationship between craving and attentional bias on drug cues. Some models imply that consciously reportable craving are clearly separable from attentional bias which substance related cues are automatically detected in the absence of awareness. Thus other models suggest that craving and attentional bias might impact each other and then influence relapse behavior. Literature revealed that there is correlation craving and attentional bias, especially in the illegal substance. The present research tried to approach underlying process of addiction and relapse by explore the relationship of craving and attentional bias in previous studies.In this study, high-craving and low- craving subjects are divided by the score of scale (OCDUS) firstly. The first experiment explores if there is attentional bias difference between high-craving and low-craving subjects from the Stroop task. The second experiment by the dot probe task explores if craving have influence in detecting attentional bias mechanisms, attentional facilitation and attentional disengagement. The main results of this research are as follows:(1)There is no difference between two kinds of stimulus,without any attention bias when the stimulus present below the threshold of conscious awareness of heroin addicts.(2)High-craving and low-craving group showed attentional bias toward the drug cues; and there is difference between the two groups. (3) The low-craving group attentional bias for drug cues is attentional facilitation.(4)The attentional bias of high-craving group for the drug cues is attentional disengagement, but low-craving not the case.