IS CRAVING THE SOURCE OF COMPULSIVE DRUG-USE

Compulsive drug use, which is typically portrayed as a defining qualit y of addictive behavior, has been described as a pattern of drug consu mption that is stimulus bound, stereotyped, difficult to regulate and identified by a loss of control over intake. It is widely assumed that compulsive drug use is caused by drug craving. This assumption is sup ported by numerous findings of a general correspondence between measur es of craving and drug-use behavior. A more focussed analysis of the a vailable data, however, reveals that craving and drug use are not coup led to the degree required by the hypothesis that craving is the sourc e of all drug use in the addict. As an alternative to this craving-bas ed view, compulsive drug use could be characterized as a form of autom atized behavior. Automatic performance is assumed to develop over the course of repeated practice of motor and cognitive skills. Automatized behavior, like compulsive drug use, tends to be stimulus bound, stere otyped, effortless, difficult to control and regulated largely outside of awareness. The formulation of drug compulsion as a manifestation o f automaticity rather than craving allows addiction researchers to app ly methods and measures derived from cognitive sciences to investigate the fundamental organization of compulsive drug-use behavior.