Daily affect profiles during addiction recovery: Transition dynamics and links to acute recovery outcomes

As individuals in recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) find initial stability, the next milestone is developing the emotional wellbeing that will offer greater quality of life, making affect a critical target. Many investigations into emotion during recovery, however, fail to account for the significant heterogeneity in daily affective experiences. The present study leverages advanced person-centered methods to capture that heterogeneity by identifying types of affect days in recovery and examines their place in daily recovery.

129 individuals in SUD recovery were recruited remotely to complete a 10-day daily diary protocol (1,177 days). A mixed-indicator latent profile analysis was conducted on PANAS items to identify distinct profiles of daily affect. Latent profiles were examined in relation to prior-day meaning, next-day binary, and conditional craving, using robust standard errors to account for the repeated measures data structure.

A 5-profile solution was selected: Prevalent NA (14% of affect days), Prevalent NA-Mild PA (30%), High Arousal Affect (11%), Intense PA (17%), and Mixed Affect (28%). Compared to other profiles, Intense PA and High Arousal Affect days were associated with higher prior-day meaning, lower odds of next-day craving, and lower levels of next-day craving among craving days.

Not only do results demonstrate the prevalence of NA-PA mixed days in recovery, but a second dimension - arousal - was also uncovered in affect patterns. Types of affect days differentially predicted acute recovery outcomes, with High Arousal Affect promoting recovery, warranting consideration of arousal in future studies.