title: Effects of levodopa-carbidopa-entacapone and smoked cocaine on facial affect recognition in cocaine smokers.
abstract: In addition to difficulties in daily social functioning, regular cocaine users have decrements in social processing (the cognitive and affective processes underlying social behavior) relative to non-users. Little is known, however, about the effects of clinically-relevant pharmacological agents, such as cocaine and potential treatment medications, on social processing in cocaine users. Such drug effects could potentially alleviate or compound baseline social processing decrements in cocaine abusers. Here, we assessed the individual and combined effects of smoked cocaine and a potential treatment medication, levodopa-carbidopa-entacapone (LCE), on facial emotion recognition in cocaine smokers. Healthy non-treatment-seeking cocaine smokers (N = 14; two female) completed this 11-day inpatient within-subjects study. Participants received LCE (titrated to 400mg/100mg/200mg b.i.d.) for five days with the remaining time on placebo. The order of medication administration was counterbalanced. Facial emotion recognition was measured twice during target LCE dosing and twice on placebo: once without cocaine and once after repeated cocaine doses. LCE increased the response threshold for identification of facial fear, biasing responses away from fear identification. Cocaine had no effect on facial emotion recognition. Results highlight the possibility for candidate pharmacotherapies to have unintended impacts on social processing in cocaine users, potentially exacerbating already existing difficulties in this population.
authors.affiliation: Division on Substance Abuse, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA gb2326@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Gillinder
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bedi
authors.affiliation: Division on Substance Abuse, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shiffrin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Nehal P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Vadhan
authors.affiliation: Division on Substance Abuse, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Edward V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.affiliation: Division on Substance Abuse, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Foltin
authors.affiliation: Division on Substance Abuse, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bisaga
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002230:Carbidopa / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002396:Catechols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003042:Cocaine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004347:Drug Interactions; D005145:Face / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009570:Nitriles / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012906:Smoke / Q000009:adverse effects*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002396:Catechols; D009570:Nitriles; D012906:Smoke; D007980:Levodopa; C071192:entacapone; D003042:Cocaine; D002230:Carbidopa
keywords: Facial emotion recognition; cocaine; dopamine; levodopa; social processing