Analysis of Decision-Making and Impulsiveness in Abstinent Alcoholics

This report presents a study comparing the decision-making processes and impulsiveness levels of abstinent alcohol-dependent individuals with those of healthy individuals. The research, conducted in Munich, Germany, involved 40 abstainers and 47 control subjects, assessing their decision-making skills using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), impulsiveness with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and personality traits via the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. The study found that the control group performed more efficiently on the IGT and showed less impulsiveness than the abstinent group. The ethical considerations included voluntary participation, written consent, and equitable resource distribution. The study concludes that alcohol-dependent subjects exhibit impaired decision-making compared to normal individuals, although impulsiveness did not directly hinder their decision-making process. The study recommends particular attention to the instruction method when executing the IGT assessment.

Effect of perception
in decision making
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Study Title : Decision making and impulsiveness in abstinent alcohol-
dependent people and healthy individuals: a neuropsychological examination
INTRODUCTION: The key factor to a right decision making process
is preconceiving the comparison between ways that would lead to
beneficial
and disadvantageous results.
BACKGROUND: Incidences has been that Alcohol addiction is often
associated with the deficiencies in critical decision making and
stimulated impulsiveness. The study compares and distinguishes
decision making styles in abstinent alcohol-addicted subjects and
decision making in healthy normal individuals in order to analyse
whether impulsiveness have a role to play in decision making.
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RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
: 40 abstainers were
included from hospitals in
Munich, Germany.
47 normal subjects were
recruited as control group
using personal contact and
social networking.
The study assessed the 1.
decision making skills with
Iowa Gambling Task (IGT).
2.impulsiveness with
Barratt Impulsiveness Scale.
3. the personality traits with
NEO Five-Factor Inventory.

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Participant selection
87 individuals in total were actually
enrolled in research study, from
March to July 2013, Of which 40
were abstainers, 47 were healthy
subjects (control group). The
abstainers were recruited from:
1. C4 ward for addiction disorders
at the Department of Psychiatry
and Psychotherapy, Ludwig
Maximilian University, Munich
2. Outpatient clinic for addiction
diseases (KPB) in Munich and
Dachau
3. Blue Cross Munich
4. Alcoholics Anonymous, Munich MM.DD.20XX

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DATA COLLECTION
o Each subject/participant were
instructed on the guidelines. They
performed each procedure once
and the whole task took 90
minutes for each subjects to finish.
The tests used are:-
o Iowa Gambling Task (IGT)
o Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11 (BIS-11)
o NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI)
o MWT-B
o Beck Depression Inventory II
o state and trait anger with the State-
Trait Anger Expression Inventory
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DATA ANALYSIS
o The study scrutinized the measurement
instrument’s reliability, The researchers
performed many t tests for independent group
differences with reference to Schafer and Kang.
o Then they checked a variance homogeneity
within the t-tests. The check included a Leven -
test along with test parameter “F”.
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RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION
o The comparison or control group
individuals performed much efficiently in
IGT test than the participating abstainers
(p < .001). The study conversely showed
less impulsiveness of control group as
compared to the experimental group in
the BIS test (comparison group: mean
56.03, SD 7.80; abstainers: mean 63.55,
SD 11.47; p < .001).
o Five personality traits assessment did not
differ significantly between these two
groups.
o Impaired decision making(Meshi et al.,
2019). and impulsivity (Asensio et al.,
2016) are important neurocognitive
concepts. This research study
investigated whether abstinent alcoholic
people have a greater level of greater
level of impulsivity while performing
poorly in psychometric tests which
measures the decision-making tasks
(IGT) as compared to a matched control
group of normal non alcoholic individuals.
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ETHICAL
IMPLICATIONS
o All the participants performed voluntarily
without any external influence.
o A written consent was waken from all.
o The research resources was equally
distributed to each and every participant
and no personal bias was applied while
analyzing the findings.
o The reliability and validity scales were
used to check the evaluation results.
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CONCLUSION
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The results of the study confirmed that alcohol-dependent subjects was not being able to
perform as effectively as the normal individuals in the given tasks-oriented decision-making.
The study also concluded that the abstainers showed a greater extent of impulsiveness but this
somehow did not directly hindered their decision-making process.
The study recommends that when executing the IGT assessment, a particular form of attention
is to be given to the instruction method for it otherwise lowered the IGT performance.

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References
Asensio, S., Morales, J. L., Senabre, I., Romero, M. J., Beltran, M. A., Flores‐Bellver, M., ... & Romero, F.
J. (2016). M agnetic resonance imaging structural alterations in brain of alcohol abusers and its
association with impulsivity. Addiction biology, 21(4), 962-971.
Meshi, D., Elizarova, A., Bender, A., & Verdejo-Garcia, A. (2019). Excessive social media users
demonstrate impaired decision making in the Iowa Gambling Task. Journal of behavioral addictions, 1-
5.

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