EXPOSURE TO NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL CUES AND ALCOHOL CUE REACTIVITY WITH ALCOHOLICS - A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

Fifty-one male and female inpatient alcoholics received cue exposure t reatment involving in vivo exposure to alcohol cues and imaginal expos ure to individualized high-risk drinking situations involving negative emotional cues. At post-test, self-report measures of urge to drink a lcohol and negative emotional states were obtained during an alcohol c ue reactivity assessment. Contrary to our hypothesis, greater exposure to negative emotional cues during treatment was associated with great er urge and negative emotional responses at post-test. In addition, gr eater duration of exposure to negative emotional cues predicted greate r attention to alcohol-related stimuli and thoughts about drinking dur ing the post-test. Implications for future research in this area inclu de extending the duration of exposure to negative emotional cues in or der to establish the optimal exposure durations within which a majorit y of individuals achieve clinically significant reductions in their ur ge to drink alcohol. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.