Predicting Relapse to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Via Quantitative Electroencephalography Lance O
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Predicting Relapse to Alcohol and Drug Abuse via Quantitative Electroencephalography Lance O. Bauer, Ph.D. A sensitive and specific screening test that would identify abstinence and 22 additional subjects with no history of the subset of substance-abusing patients at highest risk for substance dependence. Importantly, in subsequent logistic relapse would constitute an important advance for treatment regression analyses, fast  power was found to be superior to planning. This study examined the relative value of severity of illness, depression level, and childhood conduct quantitative electroencephalography as a rapid, inexpensive, problems in predicting relapse. With fast  power as the sole and noninvasive measure of relapse potential. The subjects predictor, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and were 107 substance-dependent patients enrolled in negative predictive value parameters for discriminating residential treatment programs. All were unmedicated and outcomes were 0.61, 0.85, 0.75, and 0.74, respectively. free of the complicating effects of major medical and Additional ANCOVAs revealed that the EEG difference neurological disorders. Structured clinical interview data between relapse-prone and abstinence-prone groups was and a 5-minute recording of the resting, eyes-closed related to the interaction of two premorbid factors, viz., electroencephalogram were obtained after patients had childhood Conduct Disorder and paternal alcoholism. The verifiably maintained abstinence for 1–5 months. Patients enhancement of fast  electroencephalographic activity in were then monitored for relapse or successful abstinence by patients who will later relapse most likely originates from a research staff for an ensuing 6-month period. ANCOVAs of premorbid and subtle dysfunction involving frontal brain EEG power spectral density within pre-defined frequency regions. bands revealed an enhanced amount of high frequency [Neuropsychopharmacology 25:332–340, 2001] (19.5–39.8 Hz)  activity among the 48 patients who later © 2001 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. relapsed compared to both 59 patients who maintained Published by Elsevier Science Inc. KEY WORDS: Electroencephalography; Relapse; Alcohol; (Daley and Marlatt 1997). In outcome studies of alcoholics, Cocaine; Heroin; Alcoholism; Drug Abuse; Substance for example, approximately 65–70% of patients have been related disorders; Recurrence; Frontal Cortex found to relapse within one year of treatment, with the ma- Relapse rates following treatment for substance depen- jority of these patients relapsing within less than three dence are remarkably high, and efforts to address this un- months (Hunt et al. 1971; Emrick 1974; Miller and Hester fortunate reality are becoming an integral part of treatment 1986). In outcome studies of drug- or polysubstance-depen- dent patients, relapse rates following treatment are similar to, if not greater than, those found for patients solely depen- From the Department of Psychiatry, MC-2103, University of Con- dent on alcohol (Emrick 1974; McKay et al. 1999). necticut Health Center, Farmington, CT 06030, Tel.: 860-679-4154, A number of investigators have focused on analyz- Fax: 860-679-4077, E-mail: bauer@psychiatry. uchc.edu Address correspondence to: Lance Bauer, Ph.D., Neural Dynamics ing the multiple variables associated with relapse in an Laboratory, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farming- attempt to develop screening tools that might identify ton, CT 06030-2103 subpopulations most in need of relapse-prevention Received July 24, 2000; revised November 2, 2000; accepted Feb- ruary 2, 2001. treatment. A number of risk factors have been identi- Online publication: 2/7/01 at www.org/citations/Npp02070177. fied. More severe levels of alcohol or drug dependence NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY 2001–VOL. 25, NO. 3 © 2001 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Published by Elsevier Science Inc. 0893-133X/01/$–see front matter 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 PII S0893-133X(01)00236-6 NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY 2001–VOL. 25, NO. 3 QEEG and Relapse Prediction 333 have, for example, been associated with an increased for a 3-month period after leaving treatment. Via detec- likelihood of relapse (Booth et al. 1991; Kampman et al. tion procedures which included self-reports, weekly 1998; Langenbucher et al. 1996; McLellan et al. 1994; breathalyzer tests, and collateral informants, the patient Winterer et al. 1998). In such studies, severity of depen- group was divided into subgroups defined by the dence has been quantified using scores on either alco- presence versus absence of any alcohol use during the hol or drug use problem scales, DSM symptom counts, 3-month post-treatment period. Differences in baseline or the number of previous hospitalizations. EEG spectral power, and in autonomic, demographic, The presence of an additional, comorbid psychiatric and other pre-treatment characteristics were tested be- disorder is likewise associated with an increased risk for tween the Relapse-prone and Abstinence-prone patient relapse. One such disorder is the presence of severe con- groups, and the nonalcoholic control group. duct problems both before and after age 15, i.e., a conjoint The results showed that patients with unfavorable diagnosis of Conduct Disorder (CD) and Antisocial Per- versus favorable outcomes were similar in demo- sonality Disorder (ASPD) (Hesselbrock 1991; Leal et al. graphic and clinical characteristics. In the face of these 1994; Woody et al. 1984, 1985). Comorbid depression also similarities, EEG activity alone significantly differenti- appears to promote relapse. However, the association be- ated the groups: Relapse-prone patients exhibited more tween comorbid depression and treatment outcome is high frequency  activity in their EEGs than Absti- complex, and appears to depend upon the nature of the nence-prone patients. This suggestion of heightened treatment, the gender and age composition of the patient central nervous system arousal associated with future sample, and the preferred drug of abuse (Hesselbrock relapse was convergently validated by the demonstra- 1991; Bobo et al. 1998; Brown et al. 1998; Hodgins et al. tion of corresponding elevations in cardiac output and 1999; Kranzler et al. 1996; Rounsaville et al. 1986; Sellman rate within the Relapse-prone group. and Joyce 1996; Ziedonis and Kosten 1991). In 1998, a group from Germany (Winterer et al. 1998) Although the above-mentioned clinical studies have replicated our 1994 findings using 38 alcohol-dependent demonstrated an association between greater illness se- patients studied after seven days of abstinence. Their verity, psychiatric comorbidity, and relapse, the associ- analyses of demographic and substance use characteris- ation has not been replicated in other studies. Further- tics also revealed relatively few differences between the more, when these same variables have been entered Abstinence-prone and Relapse-prone groups. When into more rigorous analyses (e.g., logistic regression or measures of EEG activity were entered into a discrimi- discriminant function) designed to predict the outcome nant function analysis, the sensitivity for predicting re- of individual cases, the resulting sensitivity and speci- lapse was about 88%. Abstinent outcomes were correctly ficity in prediction have been less than ideal. In part, the identified for 92% of the cases. The overall classification limited power of CD/ASPD, depression, and illness se- accuracy of approximately 90% was greater than the 59% verity for specifying outcome might be attributed to in- accuracy associated with only clinical measures. accuracy in the patient’s recall of his/her history and In 1999, a research group from New York University severity of substance abuse as well as imprecision in the (Prichep et al. 1999) extended the idea of relating base- diagnosis of comorbid disorders. Accordingly, the ad- line EEG activity to outcome in a group of cocaine- dition of an objective measure, which is less influenced dependent patients enrolled in a residential treatment by the reliabilities and validities of the patient’s report program. Their approach to the analysis was somewhat and the clinical diagnosis, might markedly improve our different. For example, in the NYU study, retention in ability to forecast outcome and plan appropriate pre- treatment was the criterion variable, not relapse per se. ventive measures. These investigators also assigned their 35 patients to Several recent studies employing objective and groups not on the basis of treatment outcome, but on quantitative electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques the basis of a cluster analysis of several EEG variables. have already demonstrated an association between the The relationships between the empirically-derived EEG amount of  (i.e. Ͼ 13 Hz) activity in the spontaneous clusters and several demographic and substance use electroencephalogram and relapse to alcohol or cocaine variables were then examined. There were no signifi- abuse. Our initial report on this topic (Bauer 1994) de- cant differences between the EEG clusters except for the scribed a study of 17 alcohol-dependent inpatients and membership’s average length of stay in residential 14 healthy, nonalcoholic volunteers from the commu- treatment. One cluster of patients, which was character- nity. The patients were tested after 7 and 14 days of ver- ized by a shorter length of stay in treatment in compari- ified abstinence. The control group was also repeatedly