Elevated alcohol consumption following alcohol cue exposure is partially mediated by reduced inhibitory control and...

Exposure to alcohol-related cues leads to increased alcohol consumption, and this may be partially attributable to momentarily impaired impulse control.

We investigated if exposure to alcohol cues would impair inhibitory control and if the extent of this impairment would partially mediate the effect of alcohol cues on subsequent voluntary alcohol consumption.

We recruited 81 heavy drinkers (50 female) who completed baseline measures of inhibitory control (stop-signal task) and subjective craving before random allocation to an alcohol cue exposure or control group. The alcohol cue exposure group then completed a second stop-signal task (with embedded alcohol cues) with concurrent exposure to olfactory alcohol cues, in an alcohol context. The control group completed a second stop-signal task (with embedded water cues), accompanied by exposure to water cues, in a neutral context. Then, subjective craving and ad libitum alcohol consumption were measured in all participants.

Inhibitory control worsened (compared to baseline) to a greater extent in the alcohol cue exposure group compared to the control group. Craving and ad libitum alcohol consumption were elevated in the alcohol cue exposure group compared to the control group, although the group difference in alcohol consumption fell short of statistical significance. In support of our hypotheses, multiple mediation analyses demonstrated that elevated ad libitum alcohol consumption following alcohol cue exposure was partially mediated by both impaired inhibitory control and increased craving.

These findings suggest that state fluctuations in inhibitory control are a potential mechanism through which alcohol cues increase drinking behaviour.