Although research has consistently revealed the presence of a general attentional bias towards threat, empirical and theoretical ambiguity exists in determining whether attentional biases are comprised of facilitated attention to threat, difficulty in disengagement from threat, or both, as well as whether attentional biases reflect automatic or strategic processes. This paper reviews empirical investigations across 4 common assessment tasks: the Stroop (masked and unmasked), dot probe, visual search, and the Posner tasks. Although the review finds inconsistencies both within and between assessment tasks, the evidence suggests that attentional biases towards threat are comprised of each of the phenomenological characteristics addressed in this paper. Contemporary theoretical models of attentional biases in anxiety are summarized and critically reviewed in light of the current evidence. Suggestions for future research are addressed, including a need to investigate the psychometric properties of the assessment tasks, to utilize consistent theoretically driven operationalizations of attentional biases, and to provide a temporal description of the characteristics of attentional biases towards threat.

Although social anxiety (SA) and alcohol use disorders commonly co-occur, the relationship between these variables in college populations has been inconsistent. The present study tested the hypothesized model that negatively reinforcing, but not positively reinforcing, drinking motives (or reasons for drinking) would mediate the association between SA and three aspects of hazardous drinking (quantity/frequency, consequences, and dependence symptoms) in an ethnically diverse sample of college drinkers (N = 817; mean age = 19.9 years, range = 18-29). Structural equation modeling (SEM) results using the asymmetrical distribution of products test indicated that coping motives partially mediated the relationship between SA and negative consequences and dependence symptoms but not the quantity/frequency outcome. Contrary to the hypothesized model, conformity motives did not mediate the association between SA and hazardous drinking. As expected, positive reinforcement motives did not mediate the SA-hazardous drinking association. Multigroup SEM analyses revealed that the mediation models did not differ for men (n = 215) and women (n = 602). Overall, the present findings support extant research and theoretical models regarding the mediating role of coping motives in the relationship between SA and problem drinking, suggesting a potential pathway for the development and maintenance of SA and alcohol use disorder comorbidity. Such findings could contribute to improved intervention programs by targeting coping drinking motives and building coping skills.

Rationale-Although studies suggest that stress is an important reason for relapse in alcoholics, few controlled studies have been conducted to examine this assumption. Evidence of stresspotentiated drinking would substantiate this clinical observation and would contribute to the development of a model that would be valuable to alcohol treatment research.Objectives-The hypothesis was tested that an acute psychosocial stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), increases alcohol consumption in non-treatment-seeking alcoholics.Methods-Seventy-nine alcohol-dependent participants (40 women) were randomly assigned to receive the TSST or a no-stress condition. Immediately afterward, all participants received an initial dose of their preferred alcoholic beverage to achieve a target blood alcohol concentration of 0.03 g/dl (to prime subsequent drinking in the laboratory). Participants then participated in a mock taste test of two glasses of beer. Primary dependent measures were whether s/he drank all of the beer available (yes/no) and total amount of beer consumed (milliliters).Results-Stressed participants were twice as likely as non-stressed participants to drink all of the beer available, a significant effect. Although the stressed group drank more milliliters than the non-stressed group, this effect failed to reach significance, likely due to ceiling effects. There were no significant stress group × gender effects on either outcome.Conclusions-This study supports that stress-potentiated drinking is valid and can be modeled in a clinical laboratory setting. KeywordsAlcohol; Relapse; Cortisol; Stress; Gender; Model Stress is broadly defined as a process by which a stimulus elicits an emotional, behavorial, and/or physiologic response (Ice and James 2007). That experiences interpreted as stressful can induce drinking is implicit in theories regarding the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorders (Conger 1951;Sayette 1993;Sher and Levenson 1982) and relapse (Marlatt and Gordon 1985;Zywiak et al. 1996). Several clinical studies report that relapse is attributed to stressful life events and/or one's ability to cope with stress (Brown et al. 1995;Levy 2008;Vuchinich and Tucker 1996). Not surprisingly, most evidence-based treatments for alcohol dependence include stress-coping and mood management elements to help © Springer-Verlag 2011 Correspondence to: Suzanne E. Thomas, thomass@musc.edu. Disclosures/conflict of interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript Psychopharmacology (Berl). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 November 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript treatment seekers maintain sobriety (Marlatt and Gordon 1985;Monti et al. 2002;Vieten et al. 2010).Although there is substantial clinical and anecdotal support for stress-induced relapse, determining conclusively that stress causes drinking is a challenge. To do so, randomized controlled studies are needed where individuals are exposed (or not) to a ...

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Drinking to cope with negative affect is a drinking pattern that leads to problematic alcohol use both in college and after graduation. Despite theory and correlational evidence to this effect, establishing a link between stress and alcohol consumption among college students in the laboratory has yielded both a limited number of studies and, at times, inconsistent results. The present study attempts to resolve these issues through investigating the effects of an ecologically relevant stressor-ostracism-on alcohol consumption in a clinical laboratory setting. Social drinking college students (N = 40; 55% female) completed a 5-min game of Cyberball and were randomly assigned either to be included or excluded in the virtual ball-toss game. The amount (in ml) of beer consumed in a subsequent mock taste test served as our primary dependent variable, with breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) as a secondary dependent variable. Results indicated that excluded participants reported a trend toward an increase in negative affect from pre- to post-Cyberball, and endorsed significantly lower self-esteem, belonging, control, and belief in a meaningful existence compared to included participants. A significant Sex × Condition effect indicated that excluded women consumed less beer than both included women and excluded men, supported by a nonsignificant trend in BrAC. Men did not differ in their consumption of beer as a result of Cyberball condition. Implications of sex and social context on alcohol use are discussed, as well as ostracism as a method for investigating relationships between social stress and alcohol use.