Effects of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Pavlovian-To-Instrumental Transfer in Alcohol Use Disorder

Pavlovian conditioned contextual cues have been suggested to modulate instrumental action and might explain maladaptive behavior such as relapse in patients suffering from alcohol use disorder (AUD). Pavlovian-to Instrumental transfer (PIT) experimentally assesses the magnitude of this context-dependent effect and studies have shown a larger PIT effect in AUD populations. Taken this into account, a reduction of the influence of cues on behavior seems warranted and one approach that could alter such cue reactivity is mindfulness. Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to be efficient in the treatment of AUD, but underlying mechanisms are yet to be elucidated. Therefore, we aim at investigating the effect of a brief mindful body scan meditation on the magnitude of the PIT effect in AUD subjects and matched controls. Using a randomized within-subjects design, we compared the effect of a short audio guided body scan meditation against a control condition (audio of nature sounds) on PIT in healthy (n = 35) and AUD (n = 27) participants. We found no differences in PIT effect between healthy and AUD participants as well as between conditions. However, a significant interaction effect points to a decreased PIT effect after body scan meditation in AUD subjects only. These results suggest that AUD might be susceptible to mindfulness-induced changes in PIT, with these findings contributing to entangling the underlying mechanisms of the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in AUD. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Trial NCT04032587 ### Funding Statement This work was partially supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Project ID402170461, TRR 265; 390688087, EXC 2049). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The Ethics committee of Charité Universitymedicine, Berlin gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.