Methamphetamine abstainer’s “cool” and “hot” prepotent response inhibition

Introduction: Methamphetamine (MA) abuse remains a critical issue in Taiwan, with impaired inhibitory control contributing to relapse. However, limited research has examined deficits in prepotent response inhibition across both “cool” (neutral) and “hot” (drug-related) contexts in MA abstainers. This study aimed to investigate these aspects of inhibitory control using a modified antisaccade task. Methods: Twenty-four male MA abstainers and twenty-four healthy controls (HC) completed counterbalanced “cool” and “hot” antisaccade tasks. The “hot” condition used MA-related images as distractor backgrounds, while the “cool” condition featured visually similar neutral images. Prepotent response inhibition was assessed across conditions, and correlations with addiction severity, treatment duration, use history, and days of abstinence were analyzed. Results: No significant interaction between group and condition or main effects of group and condition were found. However, in abstainers, prepotent response inhibition in both conditions positively correlated with days of abstinence but not with addiction severity, treatment duration, or use history. Conclusions: Findings suggest that prepotent response inhibition is more closely linked to recent abstinence duration than long-term addiction severity or treatment history. Future interventions should target inhibitory control in MA abstainers to reduce relapse risk and improve long-term recovery outcomes.