Effect of positive and negative affective stimuli and beverage cues on measures of craving in non treatment-seeking alcoholics
Psychopharmacology Online First 6 July 2008


Laboratory paradigms are useful for investigating mechanisms of human alcohol cue reactivity in a highly controlled environment. A number of studies have examined the effects of beverage exposure or negative affective stimuli on cue reactivity independently, but only a few have reported on interaction effects between beverage cue and affective stimuli, and none have evaluated the effects of positive stimuli on beverage cue reactivity.

To assess independent and interactive effects of both positive and negative affective stimuli and beverage cue on psychophysiological and subjective measures of reactivity in alcohol dependence.

Mixed-effect models revealed a significant main effect of beverage and positive (but not negative) affective stimuli on subjective strength of craving and significant main effects of both positive and negative affective stimuli on ratings of emotionality. Despite the power to detect relatively small interaction effects, no significant interactions were observed between affect and beverage conditions on any reactivity measure.

A key finding of this study is that positive affective stimuli commonly associated with drinking situations can induce craving in the absence of alcohol cues. Main effects of beverage cue replicated results from previous studies. Beverage and affective cues showed no interaction effects.

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