title: Clinical correlates of attentional bias to drug cues associated with cocaine dependence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Preoccupation (attentional bias) related to drug-related stimuli has been consistently observed for drug-dependent persons with several studies reporting an association of the magnitude of measured attentional bias with treatment outcomes. The major goal of the present study was to determine if pre-treatment attentional bias to personal drug use reminders in an addiction Stroop task predicts relapse in treatment-seeking, cocaine-dependent subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  We sought to maximize the potential of attentional bias as a marker of risk for relapse by incorporating individualized rather than generalized drug use cues to reflect the personal conditioned associations that form the incentive motivation properties of drug cues in a sample of cocaine-dependent subjects (N = 35).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although a significant group Stroop interference effect was present for drug versus neutral stimuli (ie, attentional bias), the level of attentional bias for cocaine-use words was not predictive of eventual relapse in this sample (d = .56). A similar lack of prediction power was observed for a non-drug counting word Stroop task as a significant interference effect was detected but did not predict relapse outcomes (d = .40).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the present study do not provide clear support for the predictive value of individual variation in drug-related attentional bias to forecast probability of relapse in cocaine-dependent men.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Ashley P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.forename: Robin E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ely
authors.forename: Karen P G
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Drexler
authors.forename: Clinton D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Kilts
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012008:Recurrence; D057190:Stroop Test; D055815:Young Adult