Selective attentional bias for novel psychoactive substance (NPS) and expectancy-related stimuli amongst non-problematic NPS users and never NPS users.

Background: Novel psychoactive substance (NPS) use has emerged as a new trend in the recreational drug market with increasing prevalence and availability rates. Little evidence has focussed on psychologically-based cognitive/motivational processes that may increase the likelihood of continuing NPS use leading to habitual behaviour patterns/dependence. One such process, highlighted in studies examining a plethora of addictive behaviours, concerns users’ preferential attention (attentional bias) to concern-related stimuli. Methods: The current study assessed whether current NPS users compared to never NPS users showed differential attentional processing of (i) NPS-related words, (ii) NPS positive expectancy words and, (iii) NPS negative expectancy words in a modified Stroop task. Results: For NPS users only negative expectancies captured increased attention - the semantic nature of the word interfered with the secondary task of colour-naming the ink within the Stroop task. In addition, the magnitude of this attentional bias was significantly different from zero (the point of no registered interference). Finally, we found no association between attentional biases for all word types and severity of problems associated with NPS use in NPS users. Conclusions: Among non-problematic NPS users, expectancy-based cognitions may be characterised by highly accessible negative NPS expectancies which are salient for attentional capture and preoccupation. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article to be published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Substance Use on 8th February 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14659891.2018.1436606