Cue-induced auditory evoked potentials in alcoholism

Conditioning processes may convert neutral stimuli to drug-associated stimuli and create an implicit drug memory. Previous studies showed specific psychophysiological reactions to alcohol-associated stimuli differentiating alcohol-dependent subjects from healthy controls. This was shown in evoked potentials using visual and olfactory alcohol-related stimuli.

Our study examined the effects of complex alcohol-associated sounds in comparison to complex neutral sounds on electrophysiological event-related potentials and the self-report of craving. We assessed 10 detoxified alcoholics and 10 healthy controls in a cue-reactivity paradigm.

Detoxified alcoholics demonstrated significantly higher alcohol stimulus-induced late P300 and late positive complexes. Subjective baseline craving and stimulus-induced craving only differed significantly between groups in terms of the craving dimension "relief of withdrawal symptoms".

The results show that auditory stimuli attach importance to stimulus-induced craving in alcoholics. Therapeutic consequences will be discussed.

The study examined for the first time the effects of alcohol-associated auditory stimuli on alcohol craving and identifies learning processes as underlying neural mechanisms which support the assumption of an implicit addiction memory in alcoholics.