Delay discounting and the alcohol Stroop in heavy drinking adolescents

Aims To investigate whether adolescent heavy drinkers exhibit biased cognitive processing of alcohol-related cues and impulsive decision making. Design A between-subjects design was employed. Setting Classrooms in a single sixth-form college in Merseyside, UK. Participants Ninety adolescent students (mean age 16.83 years), of whom 38% were identified as heavy drinkers and 36% were identified as light drinkers, based on a tertile split of their weekly alcohol consumption. Measurements Participants provided information about alcohol consumption before completing measures of alcohol craving, delay discounting and an 'alcohol Stroop' in which they were required to name the colour in which alcohol-related and matched control words were printed. Findings Compared to light drinkers, heavy drinkers showed more pronounced discounting of delayed hypothetical monetary and alcohol rewards, which is indicative of a more short-term focus in decision making in heavy drinkers. Heavy drinkers were also slower to colour-name alcohol-related words, which indicates an attentional bias for alcohol-related cues. In all participants, measures of delay discounting and attentional bias were correlated moderately with each other, and also with the level of alcohol consumption and with alcohol craving. Conclusions In adolescents, heavy alcohol use is associated with biased attentional processing of alcohol-related cues and a shorter-term focus in decision making.