Attention Bias in Individuals with Addictive Disorders: Systematic Review Protocol

Globally, substance disorders, particularly that of opiate use, cannabis use, and stimulant use disorders, are highly prevalent. Psychological treatments are an integral aspect of intervention, but a proportion of individuals still relapse despite having received such an intervention. Recently, the dual-process theory proposed that the unconscious processes of attention biases are responsible for these relapses. Prior meta-analyses have reported the presence of attention bias in alcohol and tobacco use disorders. More recent research has examined attention bias and its effectiveness in opiate use, cannabis use, and stimulant use disorder. The evidence syntheses to date have not examined whether attention bias is present in these disorders and could be subjected to manipulation. This is important information and would support the introduction of psychological interventions for attention bias for such patients. Such psychological interventions would help individuals maintain their abstinence and minimize the risk of relapse.

This paper aims to undertake a systematic review to synthesize the existing evidence for the presence of attention bias in all the disorders mentioned above, and to determine the clinical efficacy of attention bias modification.

A systematic review will be conducted. A search will be conducted on the respective databases up till 2017. Selection of the studies will be determined by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines. Quality assessment of the included studies will be assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. A narrative synthesis will be conducted, with a meta-analysis considered only if there are sufficient studies for statistical analysis.

The results of the systematic review will be available 12 months after the publication of this protocol.

This review is important as it will support the introduction of psychological interventions for attention bias for such patients. Such psychological interventions would help individuals maintain their abstinence and minimize the risk of relapse.