Journal
ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS
Volume 38, Issue 2, Pages 1555-1562Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.02.004
Keywords
Craving; Comorbidity; Mindfulness; Post-traumatic stress; Thought suppression
Categories
Funding
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) [DA032517]
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) [TI 020489]
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Exposure to traumatic events often results in severe distress which may elicit self-medication behaviors. Yet, some individuals exposed to trauma do not develop post-traumatic stress symptoms and comorbid addictive impulses. In the wake of traumatic events, psychological processes like thought suppression and mindfulness may modulate post-traumatic stress and craving for substances. We examined the differential roles of mindfulness and suppression in comorbid post-traumatic stress and craving among a sample of 125 persons with extensive trauma histories and psychiatric symptoms in residential treatment for substance dependence. Results indicated that thought suppression, rather than extent of trauma history, significantly predicted post-traumatic stress symptom severity while dispositional mindfulness significantly predicted both post-traumatic stress symptoms and craving. In multiple regression models, mindfulness and thought suppression combined explained nearly half of the variance in post-traumatic stress symptoms and one-quarter of the variance in substance craving. Moreover, multivariate path analysis indicated that prior traumatic experience was associated with greater thought suppression, which in turn was correlated with increased post-traumatic stress symptoms and drug craving, whereas dispositional mindfulness was associated with decreased suppression, post-traumatic stress, and craving. The maladaptive strategy of thought suppression appears to be linked with adverse psychological consequences of traumatic life events. In contrast, dispositional mindfulness appears to be a protective factor that buffers individuals from experiencing more severe post-traumatic stress symptoms and craving. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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