Cross-sectional study links etomidate use disorder with impulsivity and altered EEG microstates

Individuals with etomidate use disorder showed higher craving and impulsivity, poorer performance on stop-signal and reversal-learning tasks, and differences in the timing of large-scale brain activity compared with age-matched healthy controls, according to a cross-sectional study summarized in Scientific Reports.

The researchers recruited 152 people with etomidate use disorder and 67 healthy controls. Participants completed standardized assessments measuring craving, impulsivity, inhibitory control and habitual behavior. The etomidate use disorder group had significantly higher craving and impulsivity scores and poorer performance on the stop-signal and reversal-learning tasks. The available abstract does not provide further details about the procedures, effect sizes or the specific performance measures used in those tasks.

Resting-state EEG data were examined using microstate analysis to characterize the temporal organization of large-scale brain activity. Compared with controls, the etomidate use disorder group had significantly longer durations of microstates B, C and D and a reduced occurrence of microstate A. The researchers also built a multidimensional feature-based support vector machine model using EEG features. In distinguishing participants with etomidate use disorder from healthy controls, the model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, or AUC, of 0.777.

The abstract describes these findings as cross-sectional clinical and neurophysiological features associated with etomidate use disorder, rather than evidence that the disorder caused the observed differences. Because the study compared groups at one point in time, it cannot establish whether the behavioral or EEG differences preceded, resulted from or developed alongside the disorder. The AUC represents discrimination performance in the study’s participant sample, not a validated clinical diagnostic test. The available evidence is limited to the published abstract, which does not report detailed recruitment criteria, participant characteristics beyond age matching, the complete set of EEG features, validation procedures or broader generalizability.

Subject of Research: Clinical and EEG microstate features associated with etomidate use disorder

Article Title: Impulsivity, cognitive inflexibility, and brain network dysregulation in etomidate use disorder: A clinical and EEG microstate study

Article References: Liao, Z., Huang, Q., Chen, X., Le, J., Wang, X., Wang, X., Tang, Y., & Shen, H. (2026). Impulsivity, cognitive inflexibility, and brain network dysregulation in etomidate use disorder: A clinical and EEG microstate study. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-75726-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-75726-3

Keywords: etomidate use disorder, c Craving, impulsivity, inhibitory control, EEG microstates, brain activity, support vector machine, cross-sectional study, cognitive, inflexibility, brain, network