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Event‐Related Potentials in Substance‐Abusing Individuals After Long‐Term Abstinence
Author(s) -
Branchey Marc H.,
BuydensBranchey Laure,
Horvath Thomas B.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
the american journal on addictions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.997
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-0391
pISSN - 1055-0496
DOI - 10.1111/j.1521-0391.1993.tb00214.x
Subject(s) - abstinence , term (time) , event (particle physics) , psychology , psychiatry , substance use , medicine , physics , quantum mechanics
Auditory event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in ten men, former cocaine and/or heroin addicts, who had been abstinent for 6 months or more, and in 33 control subjects matched for gender and age. Patients were found to have significantly lower P3 amplitude than controls. Within the population of substance abusers, a low P3 amplitude was significantly associated with a high score on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. A low P3 amplitude, previously described in alcohol abusers, was thus also found in drug abusers. This P3 decrement could antedate substance abuse. Trends linking a low P3 to poor impulse control similar to those observed by us in a larger population of alcohol abusers were found in this small sample of drug abusers.