Cue-induced cocaine craving enhances psychosocial stress and vice versa in chronic cocaine users.

Kexel, Ann-Kathrin; Kluwe-Schiavon, Bruno; Baumgartner, Markus R; Engeli, Etna J E; Visentini, Monika; Kirschbaum, Clemens; Seifritz, Erich; Ditzen, Beate; Soravia, Leila M; Quednow, Boris B (2022). Cue-induced cocaine craving enhances psychosocial stress and vice versa in chronic cocaine users. Translational Psychiatry, 12(1), p. 443. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41398-022-02204-5

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Stress and craving, it has been found, contribute to the development and maintenance of and relapse in cocaine use disorder. Chronic cocaine users (CU), previous research has shown, display altered physiological responses to psychosocial stress and increased vegetative responding to substance-related cues. However, how psychosocial stress and cue-induced craving interact in relation to the CU's physiological responses remains largely unknown. We thus investigated the interaction between acute psychosocial stress and cocaine-cue-related reactivity in 47 CU and 38 controls. In a crossed and balanced design, the participants were randomly exposed to a video-based cocaine-cue paradigm and the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or vice versa to investigate possible mutually augmenting effects of both stressors on physiological stress responses. Over the course of the experimental procedure, plasma cortisol, ACTH, noradrenaline, subjective stress, and craving were assessed repeatedly. To estimate the responses during the cocaine-cue paradigm and TSST, growth models and discontinuous growth models were used. Overall, though both groups did not differ in their endocrinological responses to the TSST, CU displayed lower ACTH levels at baseline. The TSST did not elevate craving in CU, but when the cocaine-cue video was shown first, CU displayed an enhanced cortisol response to the subsequent TSST. In CU, cocaine-cues robustly evoked craving but no physiological stress response, while cue-induced craving was intensified after the TSST. Taken together, though CU did not show an altered acute stress response during the TSST, stress and craving together seemed to have mutually augmenting effects on their stress response.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Translational Research Center

UniBE Contributor:

Soravia Bachofner, Leila Maria

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

2158-3188

Publisher:

Springer Nature

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

13 Oct 2022 15:07

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 16:26

Publisher DOI:

10.1038/s41398-022-02204-5

PubMed ID:

36220809

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/173709

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/173709

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