Drug and alcohol dependence
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Nov 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialOpioid attentional bias and cue-elicited craving predict future risk of prescription opioid misuse among chronic pain patients.
Some chronic pain patients receiving long-term opioid analgesic pharmacotherapy are at risk for misusing opioids. Like other addictive behaviors, risk of opioid misuse may be signaled by an attentional bias (AB) towards drug-related cues. The purpose of this study was to examine opioid AB as a potential predictor of opioid misuse among chronic pain patients following behavioral treatment. ⋯ Biased initial attentional orienting to prescription opioid cues and cue-elicited craving may reliably signal future opioid misuse risk following treatment. These measures may therefore provide potential prognostic indicators of treatment outcome.