An initial fMRI study on neural correlates of prayer in members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

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  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: Informa Healthcare Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 7502510 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1097-9891 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00952990 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Publication: London : Informa Healthcare
      Original Publication: New York, Dekker.
    • Subject Terms:
      Alcoholics Anonymous* ; Religion*; Alcoholism/*physiopathology ; Brain/*physiopathology ; Craving/*physiology; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Cues ; Female ; Functional Neuroimaging ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Photic Stimulation ; Remission Induction ; Self-Control ; Young Adult
    • Abstract:
      Background: Many individuals with alcohol-use disorders who had experienced alcohol craving before joining Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) report little or no craving after becoming long-term members. Their use of AA prayers may contribute to this. Neural mechanisms underlying this process have not been delineated.
      Objective: To define experiential and neural correlates of diminished alcohol craving following AA prayers among members with long-term abstinence.
      Methods: Twenty AA members with long-term abstinence participated. Self-report measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging of differential neural response to alcohol-craving-inducing images were obtained in three conditions: after reading of AA prayers, after reading irrelevant news, and with passive viewing. Random-effects robust regressions were computed for the main effect (prayer > passive + news) and for estimating the correlations between the main effect and the self-report measures.
      Results: Compared to the other two conditions, the prayer condition was characterized by: less self-reported craving; increased activation in left-anterior middle frontal gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, bilateral precuneus, and bilateral posterior middle temporal gyrus. Craving following prayer was inversely correlated with activation in brain areas associated with self-referential processing and the default mode network, and with characteristics reflecting AA program involvement.
      Conclusion: AA members' prayer was associated with a relative reduction in self-reported craving and with concomitant engagement of neural mechanisms that reflect control of attention and emotion. These findings suggest neural processes underlying the apparent effectiveness of AA prayer.
    • Comments:
      Comment in: Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2017 Jan;43(1):1-3. (PMID: 27712120)
    • Contributed Indexing:
      Keywords: Alcoholics Anonymous; craving; fMRI; neural correlates; prayer
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20160326 Date Completed: 20171113 Latest Revision: 20171113
    • Publication Date:
      20231215
    • Accession Number:
      10.3109/00952990.2016.1141912
    • Accession Number:
      27015258