Standardization and validation of heroin - and cocaine - related words in individuals with history of drug abuse
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Abstract
The investigation of the response to drug-related stimuli is becoming relevant in the field of drug addiction. The lack in Italian of standardized drug-related words prompted the present study which collected and compiled a list of words associated with cocaine and heroin reported and rated by individuals with history of drug dependence. The validity of these stimuli was confirmed using an emotional Stroop paradigm administered to two groups of abstinent individuals with and without history of drug abuse. The results showed that these drug-related words induced an attentional bias in abstinent individuals (absent in the control group) resulting in higher response latencies to these stimuli than to neutral stimuli. The present material appears appropriate for its use in research protocols testing individuals' reactivity to drug-related stimuli.
Keywords
- Addiction
- drug
- cue
- Stroop
- attentional bias
