The impact of negative and positive affect on craving, non-heavy alcohol use, and binge drinking in patients with alcohol use disorder and controls: An experience sampling method study.

Introduction: Studies in daily life report that higher levels of positive affect (PA), but not negative affect (NA) are related to craving and alcohol consumption. However, these studies have mostly been performed in non-problematic drinkers. Therefore, this study compares how NA and PA are related to craving, non-heavy alcohol use, and binge drinking (BD) in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and controls.Methods: A total of 53 female patients with AUD and 75 female controls were included in an experience sampling study where they reported on momentary NA, PA, craving, and alcohol use in daily life in a burst-measurement design over a period of 12 months. Assessments occurred eight times a day on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in seven bursts of three weeks, all separated by 5-week periods of no assessment.Results: Subsequent craving was predicted by NA and PA in a quadratic fashion in patients with AUD, but not in controls. Future non-heavy alcohol use was predicted by lower levels of NA and higher levels of PA in patients with AUD and controls, but also by lower levels of PA in patients with AUD. Subsequent BD was predicted by PA in a quadratic manner in patients with AUD and controls, but also predicted by NA in a quadratic fashion in patients with AUD. Non-heavy alcohol use predicted subsequent lower levels of NA and PA, but this was not the case for BD.Conclusions: These results suggest that the relation between affect and craving or alcohol use is often non-linear in daily life. Furthermore, they show that a worse mood can indeed predict subsequent alcohol use in patients with AUD. However, this could be more pronounced for BD than for non-heavy alcohol use.