Neuroaffective reactivity profiles are associated with vulnerability to e-cigarette use.

Introduction:
This text describes a study examining the relationship between neuroaffective responses to motivationally salient stimuli and vulnerability to cue-induced nicotine self-administration in e-cigarette naïve adults who smoke daily. The study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure neuroaffective reactivity to various picture categories and identified each individual's neuroaffective reactivity profile using k-means cluster analysis. The study then compared the e-cigarette use frequency across profiles using quantile regression for counts.

Key Points:

* The study enrolled adults who reported daily cigarette smoking and no prior use of e-cigarettes.
* Participants were asked to complete a battery of self-report questionnaires about nicotine dependence, smoking urges, impulsivity, hedonic capacity, and mood.
* The study used the cued nicotine availability task, which included 300 images divided into 6 equivalent blocks, to measure both the motivational relevance of drug-related cues and actual nicotine self-administration.
* K-means cluster analysis assigned participants to either the CFP profile (larger LPP responses to drug-related cues than to pleasant stimuli) or the PFC profile (larger LPP responses to pleasant stimuli than drug-related cues).
* The study found that individuals with the CFP neuroaffective profile used the e-cigarette significantly more often than those with the PFC profile.
* The study used quantile regression for counts to estimate the median and other quantiles of the outcome variable (number of puffs) and its relationship with group membership.
* The study controlled for unmeasured confounding using bootstrap samples to calculate 95% confidence intervals around the 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 quantile.

Main Message:
The study found that individual differences in the tendency to attribute motivational salience to drug-related cues underlie vulnerability to cue-induced nicotine self-administration. Targeting the neuroaffective profiles that the study identified with tailored treatments could improve clinical outcomes. These findings have significant clinical implications and could foster the development of personalized treatments aimed at reducing vulnerability to cue-induced compulsive substance use.

Versace F, Kypriotakis G, Pluta D. Neuroaffective reactivity profiles are associated with vulnerability to e-cigarette use. Drug and alcohol dependence. 2023;247:109871. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2023.109871