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Deficits in autonomic indices of emotion regulation and reward processing associated with prescription opioid use and misuse

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Abstract

Rationale

Prescription opioid misuse and high-dose opioid use may result in allostatic dysregulation of hedonic brain circuitry, leading to reduced emotion regulation capacity. In particular, opioid misuse may blunt the ability to experience and upregulate positive affect from natural rewards.

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine associations between opioid use/misuse and autonomic indices of emotion regulation capability in a sample of chronic pain patients receiving prescription opioid pharmacotherapy.

Methods

Chronic pain patients taking long-term opioid analgesics (N = 40) completed an emotion regulation task while heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded, and also completed self-report measures of opioid misuse, craving, pain severity, and emotional distress. Based on a validated cut-point on the Current Opioid Misuse Measure, participants were grouped as opioid misusers or non-misusers. Opioid misuse status and morphine equivalent daily dose (MEDD) were examined as predictors of HRV and self-reports of emotion regulation.

Results

Opioid misusers exhibited significantly less HRV during positive and negative emotion regulation, and significantly less positive effect, than non-misusers, after controlling for confounders including pain severity and emotional distress. MEDD was inversely associated with positive emotion regulation efficacy.

Conclusion

Findings implicate the presence of reward processing deficits among chronic pain patients with opioid-misusing behaviors, and opioid dosage was associated with deficient emotion regulation, suggesting the presence of compromised top-down cognitive control over bottom-up hedonic processes. Emotion regulation among opioid misusers may represent an important treatment target.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grant numbers R34DA037005 and R01DA042033 from the National Institutes of Health awarded to E.L.G. and a grant from the Fahs Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation, also awarded to E.L.G.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Utah, 395 South, 1500 East, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Eric L. Garland, Craig J. Bryan & Yoshio Nakamura

  2. Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, CS, USA

    Brett Froeliger

  3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Matthew O. Howard

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  1. Eric L. Garland
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  2. Craig J. Bryan
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  3. Yoshio Nakamura
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  4. Brett Froeliger
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  5. Matthew O. Howard
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Correspondence to Eric L. Garland.

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All procedures complied with standards propounded in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Garland, E.L., Bryan, C.J., Nakamura, Y. et al. Deficits in autonomic indices of emotion regulation and reward processing associated with prescription opioid use and misuse. Psychopharmacology 234, 621–629 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-016-4494-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-016-4494-4

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