Responsiveness to drug cues and natural rewards in opiate addiction: associations with later heroin use.

CONTEXT: Although drug cues reliably activate the brain's reward system, studies rarely examine how the processing of drug stimuli compares with natural reinforcers or relates to clinical outcomes.

OBJECTIVES

To determine hedonic responses to natural and drug reinforcers in long-term heroin users and to examine the utility of these responses in predicting future heroin use.

DESIGN

Prospective design examining experiential, expressive, reflex modulation, and cortical/attentional responses to opiate-related and affective stimuli. The opiate-dependent group was reassessed a median of 6 months after testing to determine their level of heroin use during the intervening period.

SETTING

Community drug and alcohol services and a clinical research facility.

PARTICIPANTS

Thirty-three opiate-dependent individuals (mean age, 31.6 years) with stabilized opiate-substitution pharmacotherapy and 19 sex- and age-matched healthy non-drug users (mean age, 30 years).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-ratings, facial electromyography, startle-elicited postauricular reflex, and event-related potentials combined with measures of heroin use at baseline and follow-up.

RESULTS

Relative to the control group, the opiate-dependent group rated pleasant pictures as less arousing and showed increased corrugator activity, less postauricular potentiation, and decreased startle-elicited P300 attenuation while viewing pleasant pictures. The opiate-dependent group rated the drug-related pictures as more pleasant and arousing, and demonstrated greater startle-elicited P300 attenuation while viewing them. Although a startle-elicited P300 amplitude response to pleasant (relative to drug-related) pictures significantly predicted regular (at least weekly) heroin use at follow-up, subjective valence ratings of pleasant pictures remained the superior predictor of use after controlling for baseline craving and heroin use.

CONCLUSIONS

Heroin users demonstrated reduced responsiveness to natural reinforcers across a range of psychophysiological measures. Subjective rating of pleasant pictures robustly predicted future heroin use. Our findings highlight the importance of targeting anhedonic symptoms within clinical treatment settings.