Smrithi Upadhyayula

First Name: 
Smrithi
Last Name: 
Upadhyayula
Mentor: 
Dr. Casey Guillot
Abstract: 
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been related to substance use. Anhedonia—diminished experience of pleasure in the moment (i.e., consummatory anhedonia) or when thinking of future events (i.e., anticipatory anhedonia)—has also been related to substance use. It therefore was hypothesized that PTSD symptom relations with alcohol and cannabis use will be moderated by anticipatory and consummatory pleasure experience, such that PTSD symptom relations with substance use will be stronger at lower levels of pleasure experience (i.e., at higher levels of anhedonia). Participants were 52 trauma-exposed Latinx college students who completed measures of PTSD symptoms, anticipatory/consummatory pleasure, and alcohol/cannabis use. Consistent with hypotheses, analyses revealed that the association between PTSD symptoms and drinking was significantly moderated by anticipatory pleasure, such that the association between PTSD symptoms and drinking was stronger at lower levels of anticipatory pleasure. Contrary to hypotheses, analyses revealed that the association between PTSD symptoms and cannabis use was significantly moderated by anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, such that PTSD symptom relations with cannabis use were stronger at higher levels of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Thus, current findings evidence that PTSD symptom relations with alcohol and cannabis use are differentially moderated by pleasure experience in trauma-exposed Latinx individuals.
Poster: 
PTSD symptom relations with alcohol and cannabis use are differentially moderated by pleasure experience