Alcohol has been shown to affect performance on tasks associated with executive functioning. However, studies in this area have generally been limited to a single dose or gender or have used small sample sizes. The purpose of this study was to provide a more nuanced and systematic examination of alcohol's effects on commonly used tests of executive functioning at multiple dosages in both men and women. Research volunteers (91 women and 94 men) were randomly assigned to one of four drink conditions (alcohol doses associated with target blood alcohol concentrations of .000%, .050%, .075% and .100%). Participants then completed three tasks comprising two domains of executive functioning: two set shifting tasks, the Trail Making Test and a computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, and a response inhibition task, the GoStop Impulsivity Paradigm. Impaired performance on set shifting tasks was found at the .100% and .075% dosages, but alcohol intoxication did not impair performance on the GoStop. No gender effects emerged. Thus, alcohol negatively affects set shifting at moderately high levels of intoxication in both men and women, likely due to alcohol's interference with prefrontal cortex function. Although it is well-established that alcohol negatively affects response inhibition as measured by auditory stop-signal tasks, alcohol does not appear to exert a negative effect on response inhibition as measured by the GoStop, a visual stop-signal task.

Background Multiple forms of anxiety psychopathology are associated with alcohol use problems in adolescents. Yet, the mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) and distress tolerance (DT) represent 2 distinct, conceptually relevant transdiagnostic constructs implicated in multiple manifestations of anxiety that may also underlie alcohol use problems and thereby explain why people with anxiety are more likely to have alcohol problems. Methods The current cross-sectional study examined whether AS and DT accounted for (i.e., statistically mediated) the relationship between manifest indicators of the 3 common anxiety phenotypes (generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and panic disorders) and alcohol problems in a sample of 534 high school students (14 to 15 years old). Results Multiple manifestations of anxiety were associated with greater alcohol use problems. AS statistically mediated multiple anxiety–alcohol associations, but DT did not. Conclusions These findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting AS may be an important transdiagnostic target for alcohol prevention programs for those in early adolescence that experience elevated anxiety symptoms.

Internet addiction (including online gaming) has been associated with depression. However, most prior research relating internet addiction symptomatology to depressive symptoms has been cross-sectional, conducted with children and adolescents, and only examined depressive symptoms as a broad construct. The purpose of the current study was to examine potential longitudinal associations between anhedonia (i.e., difficulty experiencing pleasure, a key facet of depression) and internet-related addictive behaviors in 503 at-risk emerging adults (former attendees of alternative high schools). Participants completed surveys at baseline and approximately one year later (9–18 months later). Results indicated that trait anhedonia prospectively predicted greater levels of compulsive internet use and addiction to online activities as well as a greater likelihood of addiction to online/offline video games. These findings suggest that anhedonia may contribute to the development of internet-related addictive behaviors in the emerging adult population. Thus, interventions that target anhedonia in emerging adulthood (e.g., bupropion treatment or behavioral activation therapy) may help prevent or treat internet addiction.

Anxiety sensitivity (AS)—the tendency to fear anxiety-related experiences—is a risk factor for anxiety disorders and may contribute to smoking motivation and maintenance. Few studies have examined relations between conceptually distinct components of AS and smoking behavior. The purpose of the current study was to examine associations between AS components—Physical Concerns, Mental Concerns, and Social Concerns—and an array of smoking-related characteristics. In a cross-sectional design, we administered the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) and self-report measures of tobacco dependence, smoking abstinence behavior, and smoking outcome and abstinence expectancies to 314 smokers (≥10 cigarettes/day, 32% female, M age = 44 years). ASI Mental Concerns was most clearly associated with greater difficulty maintaining abstinence and stronger expectations of smoking-related negative reinforcement and withdrawal (βs = .21-31, ps≤ .005); ASI Social Concerns was most clearly associated with stronger positive reinforcement smoking expectancies (β = .20, p = .0009); and ASI Physical Concerns was most clearly associated with stronger tobacco withdrawal symptoms experienced in prior quit attempts (β = .20, p = .002). Based on these findings of patterns of associations with smoking-related characteristics across distinct components of AS, we speculate that: (1) mindfulness training may be useful for treating tobacco addiction in smokers high in ASI Mental Concerns; and (2) smokers high in ASI Physical and Social Concerns may benefit from smoking cessation treatment that incorporates interoceptive exposure and cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety, respectively.

Anxiety sensitivity (AS)—fear of anxiety-related experiences—has been implicated in smoking motivation and maintenance. In a cross-sectional design, we examined AS facets (physical, cognitive, and social concerns) in relation to tobacco use, abstinence-related problems, and cognitions in 473 treatment-seeking smokers. After controlling for sex, race, age, educational attainment, hypertension status, and neuroticism, linear regression models indicated that AS physical and cognitive concerns were associated with tobacco dependence severity (β = .13–.14, p < .01), particularly the severity of persistent smoking regardless of context or time of day (β = .14–.17, p < .01). All three AS facets were related to more severe problems during past quit attempts (β = .23–.27, p < .001). AS cognitive and social concerns were related to negative affect reduction smoking motives (β = .14, p < .01), but only the social concerns aspect of AS was related to pleasurable relaxation smoking motives and positive and negative reinforcement-related smoking outcome expectancies (β = .14–.17, p < .01). These data suggest that AS physical and cognitive concerns are associated with negative reinforcement-related smoking variables (e.g., abstinence-related problems), whereas the social concerns aspect of AS is associated with positive and negative reinforcement-related smoking variables. Together with past findings, current findings can usefully guide AS-oriented smoking cessation treatment development and refinement.

Trait novelty seeking has been consistently implicated in substance use, yet the origins and mechanisms of novelty seeking in substance use proneness are unclear. We aimed to characterize novelty seeking as a phenotypic marker of substance use proneness in adolescence, a critical period for drug use experimentation. To this end, we parsed novelty seeking’s two constituent subdimensions – exploratory excitability (drive for novel experience) and impulsiveness (careless decision-making) – and explored the individual relations of these dimensions to: (1) the use of a variety of licit and illicit substances, (2) family history of substance use, and (3) subjective drug effects. Five hundred eighty five adolescents (mean age = 14.5 years) completed surveys of key variables. Results indicated that, when accounting for the covariation among exploratory excitability and impulsiveness, impulsiveness emerged as the more salient correlate of substance use and was independently associated with initiation of nearly all drug classes. Mediation analyses of the mechanisms of novelty seeking-related risk illustrated that impulsiveness mediated the association of family history of substance use with both initiation and past 30-day frequency of use. Both impulsiveness and exploratory excitability were associated with increased positive and negative subjective drug effects, and the analyses supported a significant indirect pathway from impulsiveness to a more frequent use via positive subjective effects. Although limited by a cross-sectional design, these findings suggest that impulsiveness-like aspects of the novelty seeking construct may represent a useful phenotypic marker for early substance use proneness that potentially (1) increases initiation risk, (2) has familial origins, and (3) promotes more frequent use by altering subjective drug response.

Background Numerous anxiety syndromes co-occur with substance use problems in adolescents, though the mechanisms underlying these comorbidities are not well understood. Three transdiagnostic processes—anxiety sensitivity (fear of anxiety-related sensations), distress tolerance (capacity to withstand emotional distress), and negative urgency (propensity to respond impulsively to negative emotion)—have been implicated in various anxiety and substance use problems. Aims To examine whether anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and negative urgency statistically mediated relations between symptoms of three different anxiety disorders (social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and panic disorders) and alcohol and cannabis use problems. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of high school students in Los Angeles (N = 3002) assessed via paper and pencil questionnaires. Results When mediators were entered simultaneously, negative urgency accounted for a significant 33% to 85% of the covariance between anxiety symptomatology and substance use problems over and above the other trandiagnostic processes. This pattern was consistent across all three anxiety syndromes and both alcohol and cannabis problems. Anxiety sensitivity and distress tolerance did not account for positive associations between anxiety symptoms and substance use problems. Discussion Negative urgency may be an important mechanism underlying the relationship between various types of anxiety and substance use problems in adolescence, and thus represents a possible target for preventive interventions targeting adolescent anxiety and substance use.

Anxiety sensitivity (AS)- fear of anxiety symptoms and their potential negative consequences-has been implicated in the development of substance use problems and motivation to use substances for coping with distress, though the AS components (physical, cognitive, and social concerns) have not been studied extensively in relation to alcohol- and cannabis-related variables. In a cross-sectional design, self-report measures of AS and alcohol and cannabis use, motives, and problems were administered to 364 treatment-seeking cigarette smokers with a history of alcohol and cannabis use. In both adjusted and unadjusted analyses, linear regression models indicated that AS cognitive concerns are related to cannabis-use conformity motives, alcohol-use coping motives, and alcohol problems; AS physical and cognitive concerns are related to greater cannabis problems specifically in males; and AS social concerns are associated with greater social, coping, enhancement, and conformity drinking motives. AS cognitive and physical concerns were also related to greater alcohol and cannabis problems, respectively, in subsamples limited to 214 current alcohol users and 170 current cannabis users. Together with prior work, current findings suggest that it may be beneficial to focus more on addressing AS cognitive concerns in individuals with tobacco-alcohol problem comorbidity, whereas it may be beneficial to focus on addressing both AS physical and cognitive concerns in males with tobacco-cannabis problem comorbidity. In addition, cigarette smokers high in AS social concerns may benefit from relaxation training to lessen their social anxiety as well as behavioral activation to enhance their positive affect.