The Relationship Between Drug Addiction And Cognitive Flexibility And Emotional Regulation

In order to help drug addicts better to complete drug withdrawal and prevent relapse,more and more attention has been paid to their emotional and mental health problems.Cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation ability may play an important role in the occurrence and development of drug addiction.Therefore,this study explored the relationship between the degree of drug addiction and cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation ability through questionnaires and behavioral tests.Methods: In the first study,300 addicts in Shanghai women’s compulsory drug rehabilitation centers were selected and given the Opioid Addiction Severity Inventory,OASI,Cognitive Flexibility Inventory(CFI),Emotion Regulation Questionnaire(ERQ),Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale(DERS).To evaluate the degree of addiction,cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation ability of drug addicts,and to analyze the correlation between the degree of addiction and cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation ability,as well as the mediating role of cognitive flexibility in the influence of drug addiction on emotional regulation ability.In the second study,50 addicts in Shanghai women’s compulsory drug rehabilitation centers and 50 healthy people as control group,respectively be classic Stroop,emotional Stroop and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(Wisconsin Card Sorting Test,WCST)in the evaluation of drug users and healthy controls people’s cognitive flexibility and emotion regulation ability,analysis and comparison of cognitive flexibility and the relationship between emotion regulation ability and drug addiction.Results: Study 1,(1)there was a significant positive correlation between OASI score and DERS score(r=0.20,p<0.01),and a significant negative correlation between OASI score and CFI score(r=-0.22,p<0.01).(2)the mediating effect test results do not include 0(LLCI=0.20,ULCI=0.60)in the influence of drug addiction on emotional regulation ability,indicating that the mediating effect of cognitive flexibility is significant.Study 2,The Stroop accuracy rate of drug addicts was significantly lower than that of the control group(F=19.17,p<0.001),and the WCST sustained error rate of drug addicts was significantly higher than that of the control group(F=37.87,p<0.001).Conclusion: First,the degree of drug addiction is negatively correlated with cognitive flexibility.The higher the degree of addiction,the less cognitive flexibility.Second,the degree of drug addiction is significantly positively correlated with the difficulty in emotional regulation.The higher the degree of addiction,the more difficult the emotional regulation will be.Thirdly,the results of Stroop test and WCST test in the drug addiction group were significantly lower than those in the normal control group.Fourth,cognitive flexibility plays a complete mediating role in the degree of drug addiction and difficulty in emotion regulation.