Neuroendocrine responses to experimentally-induced emotions among abstinent opioid-dependent subjects

The effects of smoking and abstinence on experience of happiness and sadness in response to positively valenced, negatively valenced, and neutral film clips

“…Blunted emotional affect in abstinent substance users has been reported recently by both Gerra et al (2003) and Aguilar de Arcos, Verdejo-García, Peralta-Ramírez, Sánchez-Barrera and Pérez-García (2005). In the former study, heroin users rated pleasant images as less pleasant than did healthy controls and their evaluations of both pleasant and unpleasant images did not differ from evaluations of neutral stimuli.…”

Cambios en la respuesta emocional ante estímulos visuales de contenido sexual en adictos a drogas

“…Estos resultados concuerdan con los encontrados por otros autores, como Gerra, Baldaro, Zaimovic, Moi, Bussandri, Raggi et al (2003) que usando también como estímulos afectivos imágenes de I.A.P.S. comprobaron que la respuesta fisiológica y endocrina no se diferenciaba ante imágenes de contenido agradable frente a las de contenido desagradable en los adictos a drogas, diferenciándose en los sujetos controles, los cuales presentaban mayor activación ante las imá-genes de contenido desagradable o los de Wexler et al (2001) que estudiando diversas áreas cerebrales asociadas a los circuitos nerviosos de la emoción, encontraron que en los adictos a drogas dichas áreas cerebrales presentaban menos activación que los controles ante imágenes agradables y desagradables no relacionadas con el consumo, contrastando con una mayor activación ante imágenes asociadas al consumo y su entorno.…”

Integrating Cognitive Neuroscience Research and Cognitive Behavioral Treatment with Neurofeedback Therapy in Drug Addiction Comorbid with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Conceptual Review

“…Individuals with PSUD produce low activation to natural affective stimuli, but present high activation in these brain structures in response to drug-related items (Garavan et al, 2000;Gerra et al, 2003). It has been proposed that a sensitization of the motivational circuits toward stimuli associated with drugs could be associated with the motivational response of craving (Bonson et al, 2002;Robinson & Berridge, 1993), which could also provoke an inhibition of the emotional response to other natural reinforcement not related to drug use.…”

“…Alexithymia is highly prevalent among substance abusers (Brady, 1997;Bremner et al,1996;Fukunishi, 1996;Ouimette, Finney, & Moos, 1999), and in turn, is highly prevalent in individuals with PTSD (Sifneos, 1996;Handelsman et al, 2000). Addicted individuals could be affected by a dysfunction associated with changes in emotional reactivity to natural positive reinforcers (Gerra et al, 2003). Sensitization to drugs and counter-adaptation are hypothesized to contribute to dysregulation of hedonic homeostasis and to observed brain reward system abnormalities according to the "allostasis" theory (Koob, 1999;Koob & Le Moal, 2001).…”