The relevance of behavioral addictions (like gambling or internet gaming disorder) is growing constantly - not only in clinical practice, but also as a topic in addiction research. Furthermore, behavioral addictions were found to share similar neurobiological mechanisms with substance-use disorders like alcohol or drug addiction. Cue reactivity is a well-established concept to study an important concept in addiction: craving, which denotes the strong desire to consume the addictive substance. For instance, images of alcoholic beverages can induce a strong desire to drink alcohol in patients with alcohol addiction, reflected in brain activation in parts of the reward system and regions specifically involved in craving.

In order to extend existing findings to the field of slot machine gambling, we focused on patients suffering from gambling disorder (GD) and who mainly played slot-machines. We investigated neural activation as a response to addiction-related cues (in comparison to neutral cues) using a cue reactivity paradigm.

To that end, participants with a diagnosis of GD (N = 10) and a group of healthy controls (N = 20) viewed pictures of gambling-related cues (slot machines) as well as neutral cues (ticket vending machines), while brain activation was recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Direct comparisons of patients suffering from GD with healthy controls were analyzed for the two different image types (gambling-related vs. neutral) separately.

We found stronger activation in the insular cortex for patients with GD only during presentation of the slot-machine images, but not for the neutral cues. Furthermore, for the slot-machine condition also stronger activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the supplementary motor area (SMA) was documented for the clinical population but not for the healthy controls.

In line with previous findings, the visual presentation of gambling cues led to stronger brain activations in parts of the reward system (dACC) and in the insula, which plays a crucial role in addictive disorders, especially in craving. Our results further add to the notion that brain areas involved in substance-use disorders might also play an important role in behavioral addictions. Specifically, our findings extend existing results to the research field of slot-machine gambling in the context of craving.

None Declared

The many negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic especially on vulnerable groups like patients suffering from drug addiction have been anticipated by experts early on. While drug consumption patterns of patients in opioid substitution treatment (OST, N=24) seemed hardly influenced at the early stage of the pandemic in Austria, the impact on the mental health of this population remained unclear.

The main goal was to investigate long-term consequences of the pandemic in terms of PTSD and clinical symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among patients in OST between December 2020 and February 2021.

In a cross-sectional survey study (N=123) an adapted version of the impact of event scale (IES-R) was applied to evaluate PTSD symptoms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical symptoms were assessed by the depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21), and respective changes due to the pandemic were documented. Sociodemographic and COVID-19 related factors, as well as data on drug consumption patterns were collected.

A binary logistic regression analysis confirmed the negative long-term consequences of psychological and economic COVID-19 related factors on a higher risk for PTSD due to the pandemic. The high-risk PTSD group also demonstrated higher levels and a deterioration of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms since the pandemic.

Among our sample of patients in OST, 27% were at risk of PTSD due to the pandemic, and 30 to 50% reported concerning levels of depression, anxiety and stress. Health care facilities might use these findings as a valuable source of information, when special attention is needed.

No significant relationships.

Immune mediated inflammatory processes are involved in the aetiopathogenesis of bipolar disorder (BD) and weight associated comorbidities. Tryptophan breakdown via indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase-1 (IDO-1) along the kynurenine axis concomitant with a pro-inflammatory state was found more active in BD but also associated with overweight/obesity.

Aims of our study were to investigate 1.) the tryptophan metabolism in BD compared to mentally healthy controls, 2.) differences in weight classes, 3.) in a longitudinal setting, dependent on the incidence of BD episodes and euthymia.

At the Medical University Graz anthropometric and clinical data as well as peripheral tryptophan and kynurenine were assessed in serum samples of 226 individuals with BD and 142 controls. For 75 individuals with BD a longitudinal assessment with three samples was performed. Serum concentrations of tryptophan and kynurenine were determined by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The kynurenine/tryptophan was used as a proxy for IDO-1 activity.

showed a higher kynurenine/tryptophan ratio in BD compared to controls and in overweight compared to normal weight persons. Levels remained stable over time. In the longitudinal course, no differences were found between individuals who were constantly euthymic or not as well who had an illness episode or none.

Findings indicate that IDO-1 activity might constitute more a trait and not a state marker of BD. Accelerated tryptophan breakdown along the kynurenine axis may be further facilitated by overweight. This may increase the risk of accumulation of neurotoxic metabolites which impacts BD symptomatology, cognition, and somatic comorbidities.

No significant relationships.

Vulnerable groups like patients suffering from alcohol use disorders (AUD) are expected to be particularly affected by the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a prior study (N=127), we found that psychosocial COVID-19 factors and living alone elevated the probability for relapse during the initial stage of the pandemic, whereas long-term effects on mental health have yet to be investigated.

Here we aimed to investigate the risk of PTSD, as well as levels and developments in depression, anxiety and stress symptomatology as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic among patients with AUD.

Data was collected from a clinical sample of patients with AUD (N=136) in late 2020 and early 2021. PTSD symptoms due to the pandemic were assessed using an adapted version of the impact of event scale (IES-R). Levels in clinical symptoms were collected on the depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21), and changes since the onset of the pandemic were assessed additionally.

The high-risk PTSD-group showed higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress, and reported more severe deteriorations in these symptoms, when compared to the low-risk group. A binary logistic regression model revealed psychological and social aspects of the pandemic to increase the probability for PTSD, whereas sociodemographic and other COVID-19 related factors showed no significant effects.

About 30% of patients with AUD indicated an elevated risk of PTSD due to the pandemic, as well as deteriorations in levels of depression, anxiety and stress. These concerning findings should be especially considered in current and future treatment settings.

No significant relationships.