Impulsivity as a determinant and consequence of drug use: a review of underlying processes

By H. de Wit. Addiction Biology, 2008

1,442 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Impulsive behaviors are closely linked to drug use and abuse, both as contributors to use and as consequences of use. Trait impulsivity is an important determinant of drug use during development, and in adults momentary ‘state’ increases in impulsive behavior may increase the likelihood of drug use, especially in individuals attempting to abstain. Conversely, acute and chronic effects of drug use may increase impulsive behaviors, which may in turn facilitate further drug use. However, these effects depend on the behavioral measure used to assess impulsivity. This article reviews data from controlled studies investigating different measures of impulsive behaviors, including delay discounting, behavioral inhibition and a newly proposed measure of inattention. Our findings support the hypothesis that drugs of abuse alter performance across independent behavioral measures of impulsivity. The findings lay the groundwork for studying the cognitive and neurobiological substrates of impulsivity, and for future studies on the role of impulsive behavior as both facilitator and a result of drug use.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Mental health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fb6e5b9b575d8b48839448ffa9ed16bb29c5987b

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In Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Psychiatry and Mental health

Citations in the corpus

Coping styles and behavioural flexibility: towards underlying mechanisms (2010, background): “An extensive clinical and preclinical literature shows that impulsivity appears to be a major vulnerability factor in the development of substance abuse (de Wit 2009).”
Impulsivity, Frontal Lobes and Risk for Addiction (2009, background): “Human alcohol and drug abusers compared to never-users or ex-users show consistent deficits in delayed discounting (de Wit, 2009; Petry, 2001).”
Impulsivity, compulsivity, and top-down cognitive control. (2011, neutral): “However, it was signiﬁcant that the high-impulsive rats did not show impaired (i.e., slower) SSRTs, suggesting that there is a dissociation between ‘‘failing to wait’’ and ‘‘failing to stop’’ forms of Neuron 69 , February 24, 2011 ª 2011 Elsevier Inc. 687 Neuron Review impulsive behavior, perhaps re”
Delayed reward discounting and addictive behavior: a meta-analysis (2011, methodology): “…two sources: (a) literature searches using the PubMed/MEDLINE and PsycINFO databases, and (b) bibliographic searches of previous qualitative reviews on impulsivity in general and DRD in particular (Bickel and Marsch 2001; de Wit 2009; Green and Myerson 2004; Perry and Carroll 2008; Reynolds 2006b).”
The role of impulsivity in the Dark Triad of personality (2011, background): “Some research suggests that impulsivity is maladaptive: higher levels have been linked to personality disorders, substance abuse and criminality (e.g., Barratt, Stanford, Kent, & Felthous, 1997; DeWit, 2008; Moeller, Barratt, Dougherty, Schmitz, & Swann, 2001).”
Cognitive Bias Modification and Cognitive Control Training in Addiction and Related Psychopathology (2013, background): “First, note that impulsivity2 concerns a well-supported antecedent to early alcohol and drug use (H. de Wit, 2009; VerdejoGarcia et al., 2008).”
Delay discounting: I'm a k, you're a k. (2011, methodology): “, Richards, Mitchell, de Wit, & Seiden, 1997). The two procedures (adjusting delay and adjusting amount) produce similar estimates of the degree of discounting (Green, Myerson, Shah, Estle, & Holt, 2007). The most prevalent way to determine how delay affects value in nonhumans is using a procedure d”
Implicit Cognition and Addiction: A Tool for Explaining Paradoxical Behavior (2010, methodology): “As with any implicit assessment method, it is important to state the specific nature of the implicit process attributed to measurement outcomes (De Houwer et al. 2009).”