Effect of negative mood on alcohol and heroin craving in prisoners
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Effect of negative mood on alcohol and heroin craving in prisoners.
IRAS ID
196335
Contact name
Lee Hogarth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Depression is thought to play a major role in triggering alcohol consumption and heroin use in high-risk individuals. Prisoners may be particularly vulnerable – they show high rates of both depression and alcohol and heroin dependence. It has not yet been demonstrated that depression in prisoners is responsible for triggering drug and alcohol use - the two conditions may just frequently co-occur. We have recently found that depressed drinkers in the general population are more vulnerable to an experimental negative mood induction triggering an increase in alcohol-seeking compared to non-depressed drinkers. The aim of the current experiment is to test whether depressed prisoners are also particularly sensitive to negative mood triggered drug-seeking compared to non-depressed prisoners. This finding would confirm that negative mood drives drug use in this population.
Male prisoners (n=84) with alcohol or heroin dependence at HMP Exeter, Channings Wood and Dartmoor (stabilised for at least three weeks) will be recruited. Participants’ desire for their preferred drug (alcohol/heroin) will be measured by their preferential choice to enlarge and view alcohol/heroin related thumbnail images over food related images, when making a forced-choice between the two. Baseline preference for drug images will be measured. In the test phase, sad and angry faces from the Karolinska set will be presented randomly prior to each choice trial, to modify mood and drug choice. Pilot work with students has indicated that this method is effective (see also 1-3). Depression will be measured with Beck’s Depression Inventory (4) and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (5). We expect that sad and angry emotional faces compared to neutral faces will trigger a greater increase in drug choice in depressed compared to non-depressed prisoners. This finding would indicate that depressive episodes cause drug-seeking, particularly in depressed prisoners, and that treatments are needed which protect them from depression triggered drug-seeking.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SW/0185
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jul 2016
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion