title: Affective reactivity in heroin-dependent patients with antisocial personality disorder.
abstract: The Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), one of the most common co-morbid psychiatric disorders in heroin-dependent patients, is associated with a lack of affective modulation. The present study aimed to compare the affect-modulated startle responses of opioid-maintained heroin-dependent patients with and without ASPD relative to those of healthy controls. Sixty participants (20 heroin-dependent patients with ASPD, 20 heroin-dependent patients without ASPD, 20 healthy controls) were investigated in an affect-modulated startle experiment. Participants viewed neutral, pleasant, unpleasant, and drug-related stimuli while eye-blink responses to randomly delivered startling noises were recorded continuously. Both groups of heroin-dependent patients exhibited significantly smaller startle responses (raw values) than healthy controls. However, they showed a normal affective modulation: higher startle responses to unpleasant, lower startle responses to pleasant stimuli and no difference to drug-related stimuli compared to neutral stimuli. These findings indicate a normally modulated affective reactivity in heroin-dependent patients with ASPD.
authors.affiliation: Division of Substance Use Disorders, University of Basel, Switzerland. marc.walter@upkbs.ch
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.forename: Bigna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Degen
authors.forename: Constanze
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Treugut
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Albrich
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oppel
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schächinger
authors.forename: Kenneth M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Dürsteler-Macfarland
authors.forename: Gerhard A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Wiesbeck
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000209:etiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult