Key result
Individuals recovering from prescription opioid use disorder persisted less after negative events (d = 0.725, p = 0.028) and showed lower left ventral putamen signal compared to controls (p < 0.05).
Why the study?
Decisions to persist or abandon goals after negative events, and the neural responses shaping them, may be important in maintaining recovery from prescription opioid use disorder.
Do neural responses to negative events and subsequent persistence behavior differ in individuals recovering from prescription opioid use disorder compared to controls?
Case-Control (n=40)
Do neural responses to negative events and subsequent persistence behavior differ in individuals recovering from prescription opioid use disorder compared to controls?
Standardized Mean Difference: 0.725
p-value: p=0.028
Individuals recovering from prescription opioid use disorder exhibit reduced persistence behavior and lower striatal neural responses to negative events compared to healthy controls.
Altered neural persistence responses after negative events may distinguish POUD recovery; hypothesis-generating for targeted trials.
Background: Negative emotion is associated with substance craving and use in individuals recovering from substance use disorders, including prescription opioid use disorder (POUD). Decisions to abandon or persist towards a goal after negative emotion-eliciting events, and neural responses that shape such decisions, may be important in maintaining recovery from POUD.Objectives: We examined differences in neural responses to negative events and subsequent persistence decisions in individuals recovering from POUD without a history of a substance use disorder. Methods: 20 individuals with POUD (POUD group: 4 females, abstinent 2–3 weeks after admission to an inpatient treatment facility post-detoxification, no other substance use disorder), and 20 individuals with no substance use history (control group: 6 females) completed a persistence-after-setbacks task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants advanced along a path toward a reward; after encountering each negative event (i.e., progress-erasing setback), participants made decisions to persist or abandon the path. Persistence decision rates were compared between groups and blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal to negative events was analyzed within a striatum region of interest (ROI) as well as whole-brain.Results: The POUD group persisted less (t(38) = 2.293, p = .028, d = .725) and showed lower striatum (left ventral putamen) signal to negative events compared to the control group (p < .05, corrected for striatum ROI).Conclusions: In POUD, neural and behavioral responses to negative events differ from controls. These differences are a target for research to address whether POUD treatment increases persistence and striatum responses to negative events and improves recovery outcomes.
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Bhanji et al. (2021) conducted a case-control in Prescription opioid use disorder (POUD) (n=40). Prescription opioid use disorder (POUD) vs. No substance use history was evaluated on Persistence decision rates after negative events (d = 0.725, p=0.028). Individuals recovering from prescription opioid use disorder persisted less after negative events (d = 0.725, p = 0.028) and showed lower left ventral putamen signal compared to controls (p < 0.05).
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