Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Medical Science) >

2025 , Vol. 45 >Issue 7: 883 - 891

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2025.07.010

Clinical research

Effects of emotion regulation ability on inhibitory control in patients with alcohol use disorder

  • CHENG Fei ,
  • CHEN Tianzhen ,
  • YOU Xu ,
  • XUE Baoshuang ,
  • YANG Yunbin ,
  • DU Jiang
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  • 1.Department of Addiction Medicine, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
    2.Department of Psychiatry, The Second People's Hospital of Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, Jianshui 654313, China
DU Jiang, E-mail: dujiangdongfang@163.com.

Received date: 2024-12-30

  Accepted date: 2025-03-17

  Online published: 2025-07-28

Supported by

National Natural Science Foundation of China(82171484);Medical-Engineering Interdisciplinary Research Fund of Shanghai Jiao Tong University "Jiao Da Star" Program(YG2023ZD25);Shanghai Rising-Star Program(22YF1439200);Research-oriented Physician Training and Capability Enhancement Program of Shanghai Mental Health Center(2021-YJXYS-01)

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Abstract

Objective ·To investigate the performance and psychological mechanisms of inhibitory control in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) under different emotional contexts, and to examine the influence of emotion regulation difficulties on inhibitory control. Methods ·A total of 28 male AUD inpatients (AUD group) and 28 age- and education-matched healthy controls (HC group) were recruited. The emotional Go/Nogo task (angry/neutral facial expressions) was used to evaluate the subjects' behavioral inhibition, and the hierarchical drift-diffusion model (HDDM) was used to quantify the cognitive parameters (drift rate, decision threshold, and non-decision time). The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) were used for clinical evaluation. The moderated mediation effects were tested by bootstrap method. ​ Results ·The AUD group scored higher than the HC group on the DERS total score and all sub-dimensions (goal-directed behavior, impulse control, strategy access, and emotional clarity), and the difference was statistically significant (all P<0.05). At the behavioral level, compared with the HC group, the AUD group had elevated commission error rates [F(1,54)=8.62, P=0.005] and omission error rates [F(1,54)=4.28, P=0.043], and the reaction time of angry face stimuli was generally prolonged [F(1,54)=12.26, P=0.001]. Cognitive modeling showed that the drift rate of the AUD group was significantly lower than that of the HC group [F(1,54)=15.56, P<0.001], indicating impaired information processing efficiency. The moderated mediation model showed that, under the condition of angry face stimuli, the drift rate partially mediated the relationship between group and commission error rate, and the total indirect effect value was 9.564 (95%CI 3.874‒16.387). Further analysis showed that the conditional indirect effect increased to 10.133 (95%CI 3.963‒17.927) at high levels of emotion regulation difficulty (one standard deviation above the mean), and to 9.011 (95%CI 3.778‒14.921) at low levels (one standard deviation below the mean). Conclusion ·The deficits in information processing efficiency of AUD patients partly explains the impairment of inhibitory control, and this effect is associated with individual emotion regulation capacity. It is suggested that abnormal processing of social threat information may be an important factor affecting the impairment of inhibitory control in AUD patients, especially in individuals with weak emotion regulation ability.

Key words： alcohol use disorder (AUD); inhibitory control; emotion regulation; cognitive modeling; information processing efficiency

Cite this article

CHENG Fei , CHEN Tianzhen , YOU Xu , XUE Baoshuang , YANG Yunbin , DU Jiang . Effects of emotion regulation ability on inhibitory control in patients with alcohol use disorder[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Medical Science), 2025 , 45(7) : 883 -891 . DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2025.07.010

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