Does urge to drink predict relapse after treatment?

The urge to drink, also often referred to as craving, is an emotional state in which a person is motivated to seek and use alcohol. In abstinent alcoh olics this urge may contribute to the risk of relapse. Researchers have dev eloped several models-including the conditioned withdrawal model, condition ed appetitive motivational model, social learning model, and information-pr ocessing model-to describe the role of urges, in relapse. Several studies h ave evaluated the role of urges in predicting alcoholism treatment outcome and relapse. Some findings indicate that the degree of urge an alcoholic ex periences when confronted with a simulated high-risk situation at the end o f alcoholism treatment can predict subsequent drinking. Other studies, howe ver, show inconsistent results regarding the role of urges in predicting tr eatment outcome. Overall, the study results suggest that urges do not neces sarily increase the risk of relapse hut may actually protect some drinkers against further drinking.