Early substance use is associated with long-term negative health outcomes. Emotion regulation (ER) plays an important role in reducing risk, but detecting those vulnerable because of ER deficits is challenging. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a biomarker of ER, may be useful for early identification of substance use risk. To examine this, we enrolled 23 adolescents (M_age = 14.0; 56% minority) with and without a history of substance use and collected RSA during a neutral baseline, virtual reality challenge scene, and neutral recovery. ANOVAs indicated that adolescents who reported having used a substance were not different from non-using peers on baseline or challenge RSA but demonstrated lower RSA during recovery. This suggests that adolescents with a history of substance use exhibit slower return to baseline RSA after experiencing a challenging situation compared to non-using peers. RSA, an index of ER, may be useful in identifying adolescents at risk for early substance use.

早期物质使用与长期的负面健康结果有关。情绪调节 (ER) 在降低风险方面发挥着重要作用，但检测那些因 ER 缺陷而易受伤害的人具有挑战性。呼吸性窦性心律失常 (RSA) 是 ER 的一种生物标志物，可能有助于早期识别物质使用风险。为了检验这一点，我们招募了 23 名青少年（M_年龄 = 14.0; 56% 少数）有和没有物质使用史，并在中性基线、虚拟现实挑战场景和中性恢复期间收集 RSA。方差分析表明，报告使用过某种物质的青少年在基线或挑战 RSA 方面与未使用的同龄人没有什么不同，但在恢复期间表现出较低的 RSA。这表明与不使用药物的同龄人相比，有药物使用史的青少年在经历了具有挑战性的情况后表现出较慢的恢复基线 RSA。RSA 是一种 ER 指数，可用于识别有早期物质使用风险的青少年。