Reaction Time Variability and Related Brain Activity in Methamphetamine Psychosis

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.07.028

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 77, Issue 5, 1 March 2015, Pages 465-474

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.07.028 Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

This study investigated the dynamics of cognitive control instability in methamphetamine (MA) abuse, as well its relationship to substance-induced psychiatric symptoms and drug use patterns.

Methods

We used an ex-Gaussian reaction time (RT) distribution to examine intraindividual variability (IIV) and excessively long RTs (tau) in an individual’s RT on a Stroop task in 30 currently drug-abstinent (3 months to 2 years) MA abusers compared with 27 nonsubstance-abusing control subjects. All subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing the Stroop task, which allowed us to measure the relationship between IIV and tau to functional brain activity.

Results

Elevated IIV in the MA compared with the control group did not reach significance; however, when the MA group was divided into those subjects who had experienced MA-induced psychosis (MAP+) (n = 19) and those who had not (n = 11), the MAP+ group had higher average IIV compared with the other groups (p < .03). In addition, although control subjects displayed a relationship between IIV and conflict-related brain activity in bilateral prefrontal cortex such that increased IIV was associated with increased activity, the MAP+ group displayed this relationship in right prefrontal cortex only, perhaps reflecting elevated vigilance in the MAP+ group. Greater IIV did not correlate with severity of use or months MA abstinent. No group differences emerged in tau values.

Conclusions

These results suggest increased cognitive instability in those MA-dependent subjects who had experienced MA-induced psychosis.

Section snippets

Subjects

Two groups were studied: 30 MA-abusing subjects and 27 nonsubstance-abusing control subjects. Neuroimaging data from this cohort have been previously published, but the analyses employed in the current study are novel and have never been previously reported (77). The MA abusers met DSM-IV criteria for lifetime MA dependence determined from the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID) (78) but were currently drug abstinent for a minimum of 3 weeks. All MA subjects were interviewed using the

Behavioral Data

Reaction Time Analyses. Analyses revealed main effects of Stroop word type (F_1,55 = 140.93, p < .0001) but no group by word type interaction (p = .56). No group differences were observed on within-trial Stroop conflict effects (F < 1) (81). When examining combined IIV and tau, independent samples t tests revealed no significant between-group (MA and control) differences (IIV: t₅₅ = −1.51, p = .14; tau t₅₅ = −1.32, p = .19), suggesting that the MA group as a whole did not differ significantly

Discussion

The current study examined the dynamics of cognitive control instability in MA abusers using a RT distributional analysis. The findings revealed an increase in RT variability in those MA subjects with psychosis compared with both MA abusers without psychosis and control subjects. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find a significant increase in the degree of unusually long RT (i.e., tau) in the MA abusers compared with control subjects. Our results from whole-brain activation analyses

Acknowledgment And Disclosures

This work was funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant DA021847 to RS.

We thank Jerry Sonico for his support and technical assistance with magnetic resonance data collection.

The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

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Archival ReportReaction Time Variability and Related Brain Activity in Methamphetamine Psychosis

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Subjects

Behavioral Data

Discussion

Acknowledgment And Disclosures

Psychiatry Res

Psychiatry Res

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry

J Affect Disord

Psychiatry Res

Psychiatry Res

Psychiatry Res

Psychiatry Res

Biol Psychiatry

J Subst Abuse Treat

Neuropsychopharmacology

Brain Res

Neuropsychologia

Acta Psychol (Amst)

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Arch Clin Neuropsychol

Neuropsychologia

Brain Cogn

Compr Psychiatry

Neurotherapeutics

Neural Netw

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Schizophr Res

Psychiatry Res

Biol Psychiatry

Psychiatry Res

Neuroimage

Brain Res Cogn Brain Res

Neuroimage

Brain Res

Trends Cogn Sci

Neuroimage

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Neuroimage

Neuropsychologia

Pre-morbid characteristics and co-morbidity of methamphetamine users with and without psychosis

Psychol Med

The prevalence of psychotic symptoms among methamphetamine users

Addiction

A lasting vulnerability to psychosis in patients with previous methamphetamine psychosis

Ann N Y Acad Sci

Drug-induced psychosis associated with crystalline methamphetamine

Australas Psychiatry

Methamphetamine users in the psychiatric emergency services: A case-control study

Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse

Genes, environment and schizophrenia

Br J Psychiatry

Morbid risk for psychiatric disorder among the relatives of methamphetamine users with and without psychosis

Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet

Methamphetamine: Geographic areas and populations at risk, and emerging evidence for effective interventions

Drug Alcohol Rev

Comorbidity between substance use disorders and psychiatric conditions

Addiction

Schizophrenia and psychostimulant abuse: A review and re-analysis of clinical evidence

Psychopharmacology (Berl)

Amphetamine Psychosis. BMJ

Archival Report
Reaction Time Variability and Related Brain Activity in Methamphetamine Psychosis