Decision-making and facial emotion recognition as predictors of substance-use initiation among adolescents.
Ernst M, Luckenbaugh DA, Moolchan ET, Temple VA, Jenness J, Korelitz KE, London ED, Kimes AS
Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. ernstm@mail.nih.gov
This 4-year longitudinal study examined whether performance on a decision-making task and an emotion-processing task predicted the initiation of tobacco, marijuana, or alcohol use among 77 adolescents. Of the participants, 64% met criteria for an externalizing behavioral disorder; 33% did not initiate substance use; 13% used one of the three substances under investigation, 18% used two, and 36% used all three. Initiation of substance use was associated with enhanced recognition of angry emotion, but not with risky decision-making. In conclusion, adolescents who initiate drug use present vulnerability in the form of bias towards negative emotion but not toward decisions that involve risk.
Published 1 February 2010 in Addict Behav, 35(3): 286-9.
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