title: Difficulties in emotion regulation mediate negative and positive affects and craving in alcoholic patients.
abstract: The aim of this study was to assess the mediating effects of difficulties in emotion regulation (DER) on the relations of negative and positive affects to craving in alcoholic patients. 205 treatment-seeking alcoholic outpatients were included. DER, positive and negative affects as well as craving were evaluated by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Positive/Negative Affect Scales, and the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS) respectively. Clinical factors including depression and severity of alcohol dependence were investigated by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) respectively. Results revealed that both increased negative affect and decreased positive affect indirectly influenced craving through limited access to emotion regulation strategies. It was concluded that limited access to emotion regulation strategies may be important in predicting craving for alcoholics who experience both increased negative affect and decreased positive affect. This suggests that treatment and prevention efforts focused on increasing positive affect, decreasing negative affect and teaching effective regulation strategies may be critical in reducing craving in alcoholic patients.
authors.affiliation: Psychosocial Injuries Research Centre, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran. Electronic address: vahid.psy@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Vahid
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Khosravani
authors.affiliation: Psychosocial Injuries Research Centre, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran. Electronic address: sharififarangis@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Farangis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sharifi Bastan
authors.affiliation: Toxicological Research Center, Department of Clinical Toxicology, Loghman-Hakim Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: fghorbani.5713@sbmu.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ghorbani
authors.affiliation: University Technology Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Electronic address: zkamali55@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zoleikha
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kamali
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D066249:Craving; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alcoholic patients; Craving; Difficulties in emotion regulation; Positive and negative affects