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Biomedical subjects

W M Cox

Publications and source records attributed to W M Cox.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Effects of contextual priming on reactions to craving and withdrawal stimuli in alcohol-dependent participants.

The researchers investigated craving for alcohol using a computerized contextual priming task involving alcohol-related or alcohol-unrelated words and nonwords under 2 priming conditions in 3 groups of alcohol-dependent participants who had abstained from alcohol for 3 to 14 days, 15 days to 6 months, or more than 6 months. Results indicated that participants who had abstained up to 14 days reacted more slowly to alcohol-related words that followed sentences describing avoidance of withdrawal than did control participants. Furthermore, the first 2 groups of participants reacted more slowly to alcohol-related words that followed craving sentences, compared with neutral words following neutral sentences. The results give preliminary support to the withdrawal and craving models of addiction rather than models that separate craving and withdrawal in early abstinence. Results are discussed in light of current cognitive approaches to alcohol dependence.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Experimental mood inductions in persons at high and low risk for alcohol problems.

High-risk and low-risk participants (defined on the basis of presence or absence of family history of alcohol problems) were compared on reactions to positive and negative mood inductions and a nonalcoholic beer taste test that followed. After the negative induction, high-risk participants experienced negative affect more intensely than low-risk participants. In the taste test, high-risk participants drank more nonalcoholic beer than low-risk participants. The results imply that high-risk participants, compared with low-risk participants, (a) are more reactive to negative emotion-arousing stimuli and (b) are more strongly motivated to drink alcohol in negative emotion-arousing situations.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Alcohol abusers' and nonabusers' distraction by alcohol and concern-related stimuli.

Alcohol abusers' and nonabusers' attentional distraction for neutral, alcohol-related, and concern-related (personally relevant) words was assessed with a word-word color-naming task. Abusers, unlike nonabusers, showed greater attentional distraction for alcohol-related than concern-related words. Exploratory analyses indicated that abusers who were more distracted by alcohol-related than concern-related stimuli (i.e., "alcohol distracted") responded more slowly to neutral words than "concern-distracted" participants. The results suggest that the relative degree of distraction by alcohol versus other personally relevant stimuli holds promise for understanding the cognitive and motivational processes underlying alcohol abuse.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Effects of alcohol cues on cognitive processing in heavy and light drinkers.

The effects of alcohol-related visual cues on cognitive processing in heavy and light social drinkers were assessed. Participants were exposed to either alcohol or control cues while they completed a cognitively demanding emotional Stroop task that used alcohol-related and control words as potential distracters. Heavy drinkers exposed to alcohol cues had significantly slower reaction times on the Stroop task than: (a) heavy drinkers exposed to control cues; and (b) light drinkers exposed to either alcohol or control cues. Results indicate that the effects of alcohol cues on automatic cognitive processes previously found in dependent drinkers' also occur in social drinkers. The magnitude of these effects varies directly with social drinkers' level of habitual alcohol use.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Alcohol-related words are distracting to both alcohol abusers and non-abusers in the Stroop colour-naming task.

AIM: To compare alcohol abusers' and non-abusers' distraction for alcohol-related and emotional words, controlling for emotional valence of those words. DESIGN AND METHOD: The experiment compared 20 alcohol abusers and 20 non-abusers in terms of performance on a computerized Stroop colour-naming test using alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related words. FINDINGS: Abusers rated the alcohol stimuli greater in emotional valence than the emotional stimuli. Therefore, differences in emotional-valence ratings between the two groups were statistically controlled. Against expectation, both alcohol abusers and non-abusers were more distracted by alcohol stimuli than by positive or negative emotional stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that alcohol words are distracting for drinkers in general, and this may indicate a high level of salience for these kinds of stimuli.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Diabetic patients' alcohol use and quality of life: relationships with prescribed treatment compliance among older males.

One hundred fifty-four males attending an outpatient diabetes clinic were interviewed to determine the incidence of alcohol use among them and to identify mechanisms by which alcohol use adversely affects the control of diabetes. Specifically, we determined how diabetic patients' use of alcohol is related to compliance with their diabetes treatment regimen, and diabetic patients' expectations of benefits from drinking alcohol and actual alcohol use is related to their quality of life. Greater alcohol use was related to poorer prescribed insulin injection compliance (p < 0.01), and stronger expectations of immediate, positive consequences of drinking alcohol were related to several indices of lower quality of life (p < 0.005). These results imply interactive relationships among diabetics' alcohol use and expectancies, treatment compliance, and quality of life.

Aged↗
PubMed1992

The Vacuum-Operated Nutrient Delivery System: hydroponics for microgravity.

A nutrient delivery system that may have applicability for growing plants in microgravity is described. The Vacuum-Operated Nutrient Delivery System (VONDS) draws nutrient solution across roots that are under a partial vacuum at approximately 91 kPa. Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Blue Lake 274) plants grown on the VONDS had consistently greater leaf area and higher root, stem, leaf, and pod dry weights than plants grown under nonvacuum control conditions. This study demonstrates the potential applicability of the VONDS for growing plants in microgravity for space biology experimentation and/or crop production.

Equipment Design↗
PubMed1989

Autonomic and subjective responses to alcohol stimuli with appropriate control stimuli.

Previous studies on "craving" for alcohol after exposure to olfactory stimuli for alcohol may be criticized on the grounds that the control stimuli were not really appropriate. We included exposure to a preferred nonalcoholic beverage and to a sweet food item as additional control stimuli in order to better compare the salivary, autonomic, and self-reported craving responses of alcoholics with normal social drinkers. The results indicated that the salivation measure was differentially sensitive to the alcohol stimulus, even when compared to appropriate control stimuli. It is possible that self-reported craving is a biased measure in alcoholic inpatients in treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Effects of food deprivation on caffeine consumption in male and female rats.

The effect of food deprivation on caffeine consumption was investigated in male and female rats utilizing two-bottle preference tests. During ad lib food and water access, proportional consumption of six increasingly concentrated caffeine solutions (0.01-0.125%) steadily declined as concentration increased with no sex differences. Across concentrations, females tended to ingest more mg/kg caffeine than males. Food deprivation increased both proportional and mg/kg caffeine consumption in both sexes. When returned to ad lib food, proportional, but not mg/kg, caffeine consumption returned to pre-deprivation levels. Consumption of a quinine solution (0.02%), comparable to the caffeine in two-bottle preference, declined somewhat during food deprivation. These results indicate that caffeine preference and mg/kg consumption are increased by food deprivation and that this effect does not result from increased preference for bitter tastes per se. Rather, the results suggest that increased caffeine intake during food deprivation is due to a specific interaction between reduced body weight and the drug. The results also suggest that the deprivation effect is somewhat weaker in females than males, perhaps due to sex differences in reactivity to caffeine.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1986

Motivational predictors of alcoholics' responses to inpatient treatment.

Motivational patterns of 60 alcoholic inpatients were assessed by use of the Interview Questionnaire (IntQ) and were related to staff judgments regarding patients' success or failure in completing an inpatient treatment program. The IntQ was administered soon after intake, one month later, and at the end of treatment. It elicits patients' idiographic accounts of their current concerns and patients' nomothetic ratings of them on variables related to commitment, active participation in goal striving, and goal valence, value, expectancy, and imminence. Structural variables demonstrated significant stability over the first two IntQ administrations, whereas goal content and affect variables did not. Stepwise discriminant analysis of treatment outcome as well as correlational analyses indicated that successful outcomes were significantly related to smaller size of community, concerns appetitive to treatment, lack of concerns about avoiding alcohol, and expecting goal attainments to occur sooner. Goal orientations toward treatment and alcohol were related to other variables in ways consistent with the view that recovery from alcohol is associated with having emotionally positive alternative goals.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Subclavian steal diagnosed by radionuclide arteriogram.

We report a case of subclavian steal syndrome diagnosed by radionuclide arteriogram and subsequently confirmed by contrast arteriogram. We suggest that radionuclide arteriogram may sometimes be useful as a screening test.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Discriminability of regular, light, and alcoholic and nonalcoholic near beer.

The usability of near beer as a carrier beverage for research that varies alcoholic content is supported because, in a beer-sampling experiment, light beer was not significantly discriminated from regular beer, and near beer without ethanol was not significantly discriminated from near beer with 3.2% ethanol.

Adult↗