NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE MEASUREMENT, MANIPULATION AND MEANING OF DRUGCRAVING

Craving is a central concern for most addicts and figures prominently in many conceptualizations of addictive behaviour. Despite the putativ e importance of craving, there has been little systematic, programmati c research on the form and function of drug desire in addictive disord ers. The absence of such research can be attributed, in part, to funda mental obstacles to the measurement, manipulation and conceptualizatio n of craving processes. Examples of recent research and theorizing int ended to address these obstacles are presented. This work includes the generation of multi-item questionnaires for the reliable assessment o f drug craving, the development of methodologically sound procedures f or laboratory-based manipulations of craving, and the articulation and evaluation of a cognitive-processing model of drug use and drug cravi ng. This model assumes, unlike most contemporary conceptualizations of drug craving, that the processes that control drug administrations ca n operate independently of craving. Craving is hypothesized to represe nt the operation of cognitively demanding nonautomatic processes devot ed to either supporting or blocking the execution of highly automatize d drug-use behaviours. Research using probe reaction-time measures dur ing craving induction supports the hypothesis that craving is cognitiv ely demanding. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.