Emotion dynamics and alcohol use in NIAAA-defined recovery from alcohol use disorder

Project Summary Recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is comprised of two factors: (1) cessation of heavy drinking and (2) remission from a DSM-5 AUD diagnosis (NIAAA, 2021). Recognizing both the chronicity of AUD and high relapse rates, recovery is a process that unfolds over time and is categorized based on duration: initial (up to 3 months), early (3 months to one year), sustained (1-5 years), and stable (5 or more years). Across these different recovery durations, negative affect (NA) is a common precipitant of relapse or return to a non-recovery status (Lowman et al., 1996; Marlatt & Gordon, 1985; Witkiewitz & Villarroel, 2009). However, most studies examining the relationship of negative affect and relapse report only mean levels of negative affect. Emotion dynamics, including negative affect variability and emotion differentiation, have been shown to provide additional, unique information not captured in mean- level estimates (Colgan et al., 2019; Erbas et al., 2021; Jenkins et al., 2020). Information provided by emotion dynamics can provide a more nuanced understanding of how negative affect impacts recovery status and how affect regulation may vary as a function of recovery duration. Ultimately, knowledge of how emotion dynamics operate in NIAAA recovery may assist with identifying optimal timing of intervention and re-intervention during different recovery durations In order to better to understand the relationship of negative affect variability and alcohol recovery, this study proposes to recruit individuals in each of the first 3 recovery durations (e.g., initial, early, and sustained) who have achieved cessation of heavy drinking and remission from a DSM-5 AUD diagnosis and thus meet NIAAA criteria for AUD recovery. By combining a baseline assessment with 28 days of EMA reporting, it is possible to study the relationship of emotion dynamics to alcohol consumption in AUD recovery and explore covariates that may help to explain this relationship.