[Emotional responsiveness of substance abusers under outpatient treatment]

The emotions predispose to action providing information from both internal and external environment. There is evidence indicating that the emotional response in drugdependent patients is different from that of the not consuming population. The present work analyzed the emotions of drugdependent under ambulatory treatment (N=57), following the Lang's theory of emotion, considering the dimensions of valence, arousal and dominance or control, across the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), individually applied. The results were contrasted with a control group of not consuming persons (N=44) of similar age, since this variable concerns emotional experience. The influence of sex was also analyzed, considering the possible differences between men and women in emotional experience. The results can be summarized in the following points: (1) There were significant differences between substance abusers and not consumers in the dimension of valence, valuing the consumers the emotional stimuli of the most extreme form (the agreeable ones as better, and the disagreeable ones as worse); (2) there were no differences between both groups in the arousal and dominance dimensions; and (3) women reported more arousal before aversive images, and less before the sexual ones, than males, independently of they were or not substance abusers. Finally, it is suggested the need to deep into the analysis of sex differences and into the images selected, as well as into the usefulness of the emotion centred therapies for the treatment of drugdependency.