Table 3.
Characteristics of studies for stimulant use disorders.
| Study | Study design | Sample size | Types of sample | Demographics of sample | Country | Diagnosis of sample | Method of diagnosis | Attention bias method | Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STIMULANT USE DISORDERS | |||||||||
| Franken et al. (35) | Pilot Study | 16 cocaine dependence or cocaine abuse individuals | Addiction treatment department of a psychiatric hospital | 13 males, 3 females Mean age was 26.4 years Mean cocaine abstinence was 184 days Mean age of first cocaine use was 18.6 years Mean years of regular cocaine use was 5.7 years | Netherlands | Cocaine abuse/dependence | DSM-III-R criteria for cocaine dependence or cocaine abuse | Reaction time experimental task | Attentional bias was present in patients with higher scores on the obsessive cocaine thoughts and higher craving scores. |
| Hester et al. (36) | Case control | 23 cocaine users with 23 matched controls | Not available | 23 non-drug using participants (7 female), mean age 39.4 years 23 active drug using participant (7 female, mean age 40.3) | United States of America | Cocaine dependence | Not available | Emotional Stroop Task | Mean reaction time for cocaine words for cocaine users (922.7ms), for controls (772.2ms). Significant attention bias for active cocaine users |
| Vadhan et al. (37) | Cross-sectional study | 17 cocaine-dependent treatment seeking males 20 cocaine-dependent nontreatment seeking males | Recruited from two clinical treatment trials of combination pharmacotherapy and cognitive-behavioral relapse prevention therapy Non-treatment seekers were recruited from behavioral pharmacology studies | Mean age of treatment seekers was 42.2, mean age of nontreatment seekers was 40.4 | United States | Cocaine Dependence | DSM-IV criteria, Structured Clinical Interview | Drug Stroop task | Treatment seeking participants have increased response latency when presented with cocaine-related words. Non-treatment seeking participants did not demonstrate this. |
| Hester et al. (38) | Cross-sectional Study | 16 active cocaine users | No mention of source of recruitment, but participants were retained in the study if they had used cocaine in the past 72 h. | Mean age 41, Mean education 11.6 years | Australia | Cocaine dependence | Not mentioned | Working Memory task that manipulated attention by varying behavioral contents | Cocaine users had significantly poorer attentional control under high working memory demands, suffering both increased response times and reduced recall accuracy, with this effect more pronounced for cocaine stimuli |
| Montgomery et al. (39) | Randomised trial | 32 regular cocaine users and 40 non-users | Student Population at Liverpool John Moores University and the general population in the surrounding areas | Mean age for cocaine users assigned to placebo 19.29, assigned to alcohol 20.23 Mean age for non-users assigned to placebo 19.59, assigned to alcohol 20.0 13 male in cocaine use group 19 male in non-cocaine use group | United Kingdom | Cocaine dependence | Questionnaire | Visual Probe and Modified Stroop task | Cocaine participants who received alcohol had increased attentional bias for cocaine pictures The cocaine Stroop revealed no differences between cocaine users and non-users, and no effects of alcohol in either group. |
| Liu et al. (40) | Cross-sectional study | 37 cocaine-dependent subjects, 32 controls | Recruited from an ongoing neuroimaging study and via newspapers advertisements | Cocaine dependent subjects used cocaine for a mean of 13.64 years | United States | Cocaine dependence | Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I) | Cocaine Stroop Task | Cocaine-dependent subjects showed attentional bias to cocaine-related words, increased impulsivity, and poor inhibitory control compared with controls. The attentional bias was associated with inhibitory control in cocaine-dependent subjects but not in control subjects. |
| Tull et al. (41) | Cross-sectional study | 30 cocaine dependent patients with PTSD, 30 cocaine dependent without PTSD | Residential substance use disorder treatment center | Mean age cocaine with PTSD was 44.57,cocaine without PTSD was 44.27 Male in cocaine with PTSD was 26.7%, in cocaine without PTSD 83.3% | United States | Cocaine Dependence | Not mentioned | Visual Dot probe task | Differences in attentional bias following script intervention (neutral or trauma script) Non-PTSD participants have greater attentional bias following neutral script than PTSD participants This effect was reversed following trauma script exposure, with PTSD participants exhibiting a greater attentional bias toward the location of cocaine imagery than non-PTSD participants. |
| Carpenter et al. (42) | Cross-sectional Study | 25 individuals | Active cocaine users seeking treatment at Columbia University's Substance Treatment and Research Service | Mean age 37 years | United States | Cocaine dependence | Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I) and independent psychiatric examination | Drug Stroop | Attention bias toward cocaine related stimuli not demonstrated Stronger implicit beliefs about the positive effects of cocaine use prior to treatment were associated with poorer treatment outcome when an escalating voucher-incentive program was in place. An attentional bias for cocaine-related stimuli was associated with better treatment outcome when an escalating voucher-incentive program was removed. No association between cocaine use beliefs and treatment outcome was found when beliefs were measured with self-report instruments. |
| Marhe et al. (43) | Cross-sectional study | 34 cocaine dependent inpatients | Recruited from an addiction treatment center | Mean age 38.7 85% males 11.4 years of using cocaine | Netherlands | Cocaine dependence | DSM-IV criteria for cocaine dependence | Cocaine Stroop test | Presence of attentional bias, with cocaine dependent patients responding slower to cocaine stimuli |
| Bardeen et al. (44) | Cross-sectional study | 22 cocaine dependent patients with BPD 36 cocaine dependent patients without BPD | Community based residential substance use disorder treatment facility | 26 females, mean age of 44.5 years | United States | Cocaine dependence | DSM-IV criteria for cocaine dependence | Dot-probe task | Males with BPD have higher attentional bias scores following a post trauma script intervention |
| Kennedy et al. (45) | Cross-sectional study | 35 individuals | Substance abuse and treatment program | 20 non relapsers, mean age 43.7 15 relapsers, mean age 43.0 | United States | Cocaine dependence | Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV | Stroop tasks | Attention bias was present, with cocaine-dependent subjects having increased reaction time for personal drug use words (928.6ms) vs. neutral words (897.2) The level of attentional bias for cocaine-use words was not predictive of eventual relapse |
| Dias et al. (46) | Cross-sectional study | 46 cocaine dependent subjects 41 healthy controls | Recruited by a variety of media advertisements | cocaine dependent group Mean age was 46.3 Control mean age was 40.0 cocaine dependent group %Male was 84.8%, Control %Male was 51.2 | United States | Cocaine dependence | DSM-IV (SCID-1) | Eye-tracking cocaine attentional bias task | Presence of attentional bias toward cocaine cues as cocaine dependent subjects made more anti-saccade to cocaine cues |
| Mayer et al. (6) | Randomised trial | 37 participants Assigned to either attentional bias modification therapy (ABMT) or control therapy | Not mentioned | ABMT group: 14male, and 5 female, mean age 37.4 Control group: 10 male and 8 female, mean age 38.9 | United States | Cocaine dependence | Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV | Visual Probe task | Presence of attentional bias Not subjected to modification byABMT |
| Marks et al. (47) | Cross-sectional study | 20 cocaine dependence 20 cocaine and alcohol dependent | Recruited through word of mouth and postings on community bulletin boards | Cocaine mean age 43.4 Cocaine alcohol mean age 43.4 6 females in each groups | United States | Cocaine and alcohol dependent | Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV | Eye-tracking cocaine attentional bias task | Cocaine dependent had attentional bias toward cocaine Cocaine-alcohol dependent has attentional bias toward both cocaine and alcohol. |
| Devito et al. (48) | Randomised trial | 38 in treatment as usual plus computer-based CBT (CBT4CBT) 41 in treatment as usual | Recruited from community based outpatient clinic | 46% female, mean age 42.2 | United States | Cocaine use disorder | DSM-IV | Computerized drug Stroop test | Reductions in Drug Stroop Effect across treatment were associated with greater engagement with CBT4CBT-specific treatment components |
| Sharma et al. (49) | Cross-sectional study | Study 1 52 participants, 27 of which were regular marijuana users and 25 were not marijuana users Study 2 16 participants | Recruited through social networks and known to be marijuana smokers or non-users Recruited from two local Narcotics Anonymous Fellowships | Mean age 31 years old 38 males 13 males, 3 females, with ages of 25 to 41 | United Kingdom | Cannabis dependence Cocaine dependence | Self-report Self-report | Drug Stroop task | A slowdown in responding to the color of non-words that were paired with cocaine-related images compared with non-cocaine related images. The slowdown was also characterized as a carryover effect, with the largest effect occurring on trials following the addiction-associated non-word. No effects were found for marijuana images associated with non-words. |