Is (poly-) substance use associated with impaired inhibitory control? A mega-analysis controlling for confounders

Publication date: Available online 15 July 2019Source: Neuroscience & Biobehavioral ReviewsAuthor(s): Yang Liu, Wery P.M. van den Wildenberg, Ysanne de Graaf, Susan L. Ames, Alexander Baldacchino, Bø Ragnhild, Fernando Cadaveira, Salvatore Campanella, Paul Christiansen, Eric D. Claus, Lorenza S. Colzato, Francesca M. Filbey, John J. Foxe, Hugh Garavan, Christian S. Hendershot, Robert Hester, Jennifer M. Jester, Hollis C. Karoly, Anja Kräplin, Fanny KreuschAbstractMany studies have reported that heavy substance use is associated with impaired response inhibition. Studies typically focused on associations with a single substance, while polysubstance use is common. Further, most studies compared heavy users with light/non-users, though substance use occurs along a continuum. The current mega-analysis accounted for these issues by aggregating individual data from 43 studies (3610 adult participants) that used the Go/No-Go (GNG) or Stop-signal task (SST) to assess inhibition among mostly “recreational” substance users (i.e., the rate of substance use disorders was low). Main and interaction effects of substance use, demographics, and task-characteristics were entered in a linear mixed model. Contrary to many studies and reviews in the field, we found that only lifetime cannabis use was associated with impaired response inhibition in the SST. An interaction effect was also observed: the relationship between tobacco use and response inhibition (in the SST) differed between can...
Source: Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research