title: Effects of negative and positive mood phrases on priming of alcohol words in young drinkers with high and low anxiety sensitivity.
abstract: This study investigated whether potential emotional cues for drinking activate alcohol concepts in young drinkers. Participants were 84 university freshmen with high or low levels of anxiety sensitivity (AS). A verbal priming task measured activation (i.e., priming) of alcohol concepts (e.g., beer) by positive and negative mood phrases. Time to read alcohol target words was the dependent measure. Negative mood phrases consistently primed alcohol targets; positive mood phrases did not. Degree of negative mood priming did not differ as a function of gender or AS. Reported tendency to drink in bad moods predicted negative mood priming in women, whereas men showed negative mood priming irrespective of their reported drinking tendency. A general association between negative mood priming and severity of alcohol problems also emerged.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroscience Section, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. martin_zack@camh.net
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zack
authors.forename: Constantine X
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Poulos
authors.forename: Fofo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fragopoulos
authors.forename: Colin M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: MacLeod
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*