Conditioned Abstinence in Alcoholics: A Controlled Experiment

Abstract

The existence of conditioned abstinence symptoms in 16 abstinent alcoholics was investigated by comparing their subjective, physiological and behavioral responses while viewing slides of alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related stimuli. The alcoholics were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups. The 1st group viewed a set of 6 alcohol-related slides the 1st day and a set of 6 non-alcohol-related slides the following day. The 2nd group looked at the same slides, but the order of presentation was reversed. Alcohol-related slides produced significantly greater increases in subjectively reported alcohol craving and anxiety scores. There were no differences between the 2 sets with regard to physiological measures or subjective reports of heart rate. The global observations showed significant differences between the alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related slides.