Effects of Emotion on Decision-Making of Methamphetamine Users: Based on the Emotional Iowa Gambling Task.

The relapse of methamphetamine (meth) is associated with decision-making dysfunction. The present study aims to investigate the impact of different emotions on the decision-making behavior of meth users. We used 2 (gender: male, female) x 3 (emotion: positive, negative, neutral) x 5 (block: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) mixed experiment design. The study involved 168 meth users who were divided into three groups: positive emotion, negative emotion and neutral emotion group, and tested by the emotional Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The IGT performance of male users exhibited a decreasing trend from Block 1 to Block 3. Female meth users in positive emotion had the best performance in IGT than females in the other two groups. In positive emotion, the IGT performance of female meth users was significantly better than that of men. Female meth users in positive emotion had better decision-making than those in negative or neutral emotion. Female meth users in positive emotion had better decision-making performance than males in positive emotion. In negative and neutral emotions, there was no significant gender difference in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]