Laurie Roehrich

Indiana University of Pennsylvania | IUP · Department of Psychology

Expectations about the effects of alcohol have been modeled as stored memories. This study tested the memory view for investigating the processes that influence drinking. Strategies taken from recent memory research were used to implicitly prime drinking. Consequent effects on consumption of a commercial nonalcoholic beer were measured. Participant...

An estimated one million individuals in the United States inject drugs (Institute for Health Policy Studies, 1990). Injecting drug users (IDUs) represent the second largest group at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and are the primary source for heterosexual and perinatal HIV transmission (Centers for Disease Control, 1991). D...

Accumulating research has shown that some cognitive deficits in recently abstinent alcoholics (e.g., cognitive flexibility, acquisition of novel skills) improve only with remediation in contrast to the spontaneous, time-dependent rebound seen for other tasks. In principle, this facilitated or experience-dependent recovery should enhance acquisition...

Risk-related antecedent variables can be linked to later alcohol consumption by memory processes, and alcohol expectancies may be one relevant memory content. To advance research in this area, it would be useful to apply current memory models such as semantic network theory to explain drinking decision processes. We used multidimensional scaling (M...

Excessive exposure to glucocorticoids can have neurotoxic effects. The behavioral, cognitive, and neurochemical changes observed following the cessation of heavy drinking, therefore, may be associated with disturbances of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. To investigate HPA axis disturbances during the ethanol withdrawal syndrome, the...

Psychological expectancies regarding the use of alcohol may often be more powerful than pharmacological effects. Studies focusing on alcohol expectancies and the male sexual response are reviewed. Males who believe they consumed alcohol show increased arousal to deviant stimuli (rape, violent erotica) compared to males who are told to expect no alc...

We assessed the plasma corticotropin (adrenocorticotropic hormone) and cortisol responses to ovine corticotropin releasing hormone (oCRH) and the cerebrospinal fluid levels of CRH and corticotropin in alcoholics at various durations of abstinence and compared these variables with age-equivalent controls. Alcoholics who were tested at 1 week of abst...

We assessed the plasma corticotropin (adrenocorticotropic hormone) and cortisol responses to ovine corticotropin releasing hormone (oCRH) and the cerebrospinal fluid levels of CRH and corticotropin in alcoholics at various durations of abstinence and compared these variables with age-equivalent controls. Alcoholics who were tested at 1 week of abst...

We investigated psychobiological substrates of pathological gambling by measuring levels of norepinephrine, monoamine metabolites, and peptides in cerebrospinal fluid, plasma, and urine. Pathological gamblers had a significantly higher centrally produced fraction of cerebrospinal fluid levels of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol as well as significan...

The chronic effects of fluvoxamine (200 mg per day for 4 weeks) were studied in ten alcoholic organic brain syndrome patients in a double-blind cross-over design. Complete neuropsychological evaluation was performed as well as measurement of neurochemical changes in CSF. Fluvoxamine produced a small but significant improvement in memory performance...

We investigated whether thiamine deficiency (TD), a frequent concomitant of chronic alcoholism, differentially modifies the response to ethanol in two inbred rat strains with highly different genetic susceptibilities to development of TD encephalopathy. Ethanol-induced (3 g/kg i.p.) behavioral impairment and hypothermia were studied after 2, 5 and...

Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 1990. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-92).