Craving shift in chronic alcoholics

In order to investigate changes in the consumption of substances that stimu late the reward system, 222 recently detoxified alcoholics were asked about their consumptional habits before as compared to after detoxification (mix ed prospective and retrospective design). Seventy-eight point two percent r eported an increase in consumption of coffee, cigarettes, chocolate and oth er sweets, while 34.9% managed to reduce at least one of these substances. The increase was significant for coffee, chocolate and other sweets. The de sire for consumption of these substances was correlated with the maximum ev er experienced desire for alcohol (0.232 for coffee, 0.213 for cigarettes, 0.193 for chocolate and 0.176 for other sweets), and the actual consumption of coffee, cigarettes and sweets was correlated with the actual desire for alcohol (0.172, 0.157 and 0.245, respectively). The results tend some supp ort to the hypothesis that psychotropic substances might serve as a kind of self-regulation against craving in this group. A possible link to biochemi cal theories is discussed. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG. Basel.