The Impact of Quality of Life and Recovery Capital on Inhibitory Control in Patients on Medication for Opioid Use Disorder

The opioid crisis persists as a global health challenge, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between psychological factors and neurocognitive responses among individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). Two such psychological factors include recovery capital, an individual's internal and external resources to supporting recovery, and quality of life. Past work suggests that positive levels of recovery capital and quality of life may enhance individuals’ ability to regulate emotions and manage cravings. However, it is unclear how these variables are affected when buprenorphine is taken. This study investigates the influence of recovery capital and quality of life on inhibitory control and neural responses to drug and neutral stimuli in individuals with OUD on medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Participants (N=40) were recruited as part of a larger, ongoing randomized controlled trial. Participants completed two study sessions; session one entailed completing the recovery capital and quality of life surveys as well as demographics, while session two focused on the neurocognitive portion of the study. In the second session, participants completed a Go/NoGo task with both neutral and drug cues while having a four-channel EEG recording. Paired sample t-test results demonstrated that individuals receiving early MOUD treatment had lower accuracy and lower alpha and beta power EEG activity in the right frontal lobe for drug relative to neutral NoGo cues. This result demonstrated that individuals on early MOUD treatment exhibited greater difficulty inhibiting their response to drug relative to neutral inhibitory cues. However, hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that neither recovery capital nor quality of life significantly influenced these effects. These results may point to the right frontal brain region involved in attentional and inhibitory control as a potential neuromodulation targets that could amplify the therapeutic impact of MOUD treatment by directly enhancing cognitive capacities critical to recovery.