ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE AND CUE REACTIVITY

A group of 35 severely dependent male alcoholic patients undergoing cu e exposure treatment were studied. Thirty-one subjects had complete da ta and their physiological and subjective responses to drink cues on t he first day of the cue exposure program were subjected to a principal components analysis. The principal component loadings were then used to construct a single measure of responsivity and this responsivity me asure was found to correlate significantly with Severity of Alcohol De pendence Questionnaire (SADQ) scores. Further analysis of the relation ship between responsivity and the subscales of the SADQ showed that th e experience of affective withdrawal symptoms, craving for alcohol and drinking to relieve withdrawal symptoms were the most strongly correl ated with responsivity.