TY - JOUR
T1 - Neural response to errors is associated with problematic alcohol use over time in combat-exposed returning veterans
T2 - An event-related potential study
AU - Crane, Natania A.
AU - Gorka, Stephanie M.
AU - Burkhouse, Katie L.
AU - Afshar, Kaveh
AU - Greenstein, Justin E.
AU - Aase, Darrin M.
AU - Proescher, Eric
AU - Schroth, Christopher
AU - Kennedy, Amy E.
AU - Phan, K. Luan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017
PY - 2018/2/1
Y1 - 2018/2/1
N2 - Background Currently, we do not have biomarkers to help identify individuals at-risk for chronic, problematic alcohol use, especially among veteran populations, who have notoriously high rates of alcohol use. One biomarker that may predict individuals at risk for chronic, problematic alcohol use is error-related brain activity. We examined longitudinal associations between the error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential observed following the commission of errors, and problematic alcohol use among U.S. military veterans returning from recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Methods Forty-six military veterans, aged 18–55 years, completed a well-validated flanker task known to elicit the ERN at baseline. Problematic alcohol use and other clinically relevant variables were assessed at baseline, 3-, 6-, 9-, 12-, 15-, 18-, 21-months, and 2 years. Results Results indicated that the ERN magnitude was associated with problematic alcohol use over time, even after controlling for relevant clinical variables. Specifically, veterans with a smaller ERN magnitude evidenced a decline in problematic alcohol use over time, while veterans with a larger ERN magnitude had no change in their problematic alcohol use across the follow-up. In addition, exploratory analyses found that treatment engagement during the study did not moderate these relationships. Conclusions Our findings provide preliminary evidence that ERN can be used as a predictor of problematic alcohol use over time. Therefore, neural response to errors could help to identify individuals at risk for continued problematic alcohol use for intervention efforts and suggests that error processing may be an important therapeutic target within Alcohol Use Disorder intervention efforts.
AB - Background Currently, we do not have biomarkers to help identify individuals at-risk for chronic, problematic alcohol use, especially among veteran populations, who have notoriously high rates of alcohol use. One biomarker that may predict individuals at risk for chronic, problematic alcohol use is error-related brain activity. We examined longitudinal associations between the error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential observed following the commission of errors, and problematic alcohol use among U.S. military veterans returning from recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Methods Forty-six military veterans, aged 18–55 years, completed a well-validated flanker task known to elicit the ERN at baseline. Problematic alcohol use and other clinically relevant variables were assessed at baseline, 3-, 6-, 9-, 12-, 15-, 18-, 21-months, and 2 years. Results Results indicated that the ERN magnitude was associated with problematic alcohol use over time, even after controlling for relevant clinical variables. Specifically, veterans with a smaller ERN magnitude evidenced a decline in problematic alcohol use over time, while veterans with a larger ERN magnitude had no change in their problematic alcohol use across the follow-up. In addition, exploratory analyses found that treatment engagement during the study did not moderate these relationships. Conclusions Our findings provide preliminary evidence that ERN can be used as a predictor of problematic alcohol use over time. Therefore, neural response to errors could help to identify individuals at risk for continued problematic alcohol use for intervention efforts and suggests that error processing may be an important therapeutic target within Alcohol Use Disorder intervention efforts.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85038232727&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85038232727&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.11.008
DO - 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.11.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 29253797
AN - SCOPUS:85038232727
SN - 0376-8716
VL - 183
SP - 155
EP - 161
JO - Drug and alcohol dependence
JF - Drug and alcohol dependence
ER -