ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2016
Association between problematic alcohol use and reactivity to uncertain threat in two independent samples.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed.
- Acute orexin antagonism selectively modulates anticipatory anxiety in humans: implications for addiction and anxiety.Translational psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Longitudinal associations between binge drinking and changes in behavioral and neural threat reactivity in youth.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Decoding the bidirectional links between alcohol misuse and aggression: toward a unified translational framework.Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Altered Effective Connectivity During Threat Anticipation in Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- Sexual Minority Identity and Risky Alcohol Use: the Moderating Role of Aggressive Behavior.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2025Article
- Sex and sobriety: Human brain structure and function in AUD abstinence.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2024Review
- Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis network responses to unpredictable threat in early alcohol abstinence.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2024Article
- Impact of handgun ownership and biological sex on startle reactivity to predictable and unpredictable threats.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2024Article
- Neural response to threat and reward among young adults at risk for alcohol use disorder.Addiction biology · 2024Article
- NEURAL RESPONSE TO THREAT AND REWARD AMONG YOUNG ADULTS AT RISK FOR ALCOHOL USE DISORDER.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Behavioral and brain reactivity to uncertain stress prospectively predicts binge drinking in youth.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Association between startle reactivity to uncertain threats and structural brain volume.Psychophysiology · 2022Article
- Event-related potentials to acoustic startle probes during unpredictable threat are associated with individual differences in intolerance of uncertainty.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2022Article
- Childhood Adversity and the Association Between Stress Sensitivity and Problematic Alcohol Use in Adults.Journal of traumatic stress · 2022Article
- Changes in Alcohol Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impact of the Lockdown Conditions and Mental Health Factors.International journal of mental health and addiction · 2022Article
- Engaging in Risky and Impulsive Behaviors to Alleviate Distress Mediates Associations Between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Externalizing Psychopathology.Journal of personality disorders · 2021Article
- Stress Allostasis in Substance Use Disorders: Promise, Progress, and Emerging Priorities in Clinical Research.Annual review of clinical psychology · 2020Review
- Behavioral and neural sensitivity to uncertain threat in individuals with alcohol use disorder: Associations with drinking behaviors and motives.Addiction biology · 2020Article
- Human Plasma BDNF Is Associated With Amygdala-Prefrontal Cortex Functional Connectivity and Problem Drinking Behaviors.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Article
- From Uncertainty to Anxiety: How Uncertainty Fuels Anxiety in a Process Mediated by Intolerance of Uncertainty.Neural plasticity · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRecent laboratory studies have shown that acute alcohol intoxication selectively and effectively dampens aversive responding to uncertain threat. An emerging hypothesis is that individuals who exhibit heightened reactivity to uncertain threat may be especially motivated to use alcohol to dampen their distress, setting the stage for negative reinforcement processes to drive excessive alcohol use. However, no study to date has directly examined whether current problematic drinkers exhibit heightened reactivity to uncertain threat as would be expected.
methodsThe present study was therefore designed to examine the association between current problematic alcohol use and reactivity to uncertain threat during sobriety in two, independent samples. In Study 1 (n=221) and Study 2 (n=74), adult participants completed the same well-validated threat-of-shock task which separately probes responses to temporally predictable and unpredictable threat. Startle potentiation was measured as an index of aversive responding. Problematic alcohol use was defined as number of binge episodes within the past 30days in Study 1 and total scores on a self-report measure of hazardous drinking in Study 2.
resultsAs hypothesized, across both studies greater levels of problematic drinking were associated with greater startle potentiation to unpredictable threat. In Study 2, hazardous drinking scores were also positively associated with startle potentiation to predictable threat.
conclusionsThe findings are notably consistent with the notion that heightened reactivity to uncertain threat is an important individual difference factor associated with the onset and/or maintenance of problematic drinking behaviors and may therefore be a novel prevention and intervention target.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.