What is it about?
How the need for altering affects (i.e. stress, impulses, mood and emotions) with substances among people with substance use disorder unfolds through the substance use disorder trajectory is not clear. This study found that people with substance use disorder experienced difficulties with regulating affects before, meanwhile, during and after developing a substance use disorder. The most prominent finding was difficulties with regulating the affect regulation (i.e. meta-regulation of affect).
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Why is it important?
This study gives insights into how people with substance use disorders can experience difficulties with regulating affect across their trajectory of substance use, and that treatment could target overarching processes of affect regulation.
Perspectives
Doing this study was really interesting and developing, mostly because of all the wise informants we spoke to that shared their history and perspectives (both patients, next of kin and clinicians). I hope this article will contribute to the importance of addressing affect regulation when helping people with substance use disorder to trying to recover.
Sunniva Elisabeth Christiansen
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “My baseline affect is displeasure”: A qualitative study of affect regulation in people with substance use disorders., Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, March 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/adb0001140.
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