Reactivity to nicotine cues over repeated cue reactivity sessions

The present study investigated whether reactivity to nicotine-related cues would attenuate across four experimental sessions held 1 week apart. Participants were nineteen non-treatment seeking, nicotine-dependent males. Cue reactivity sessions were performed in an outpatient research center using in vivo cues consisting of standardized smoking-related paraphernalia (e.g., cigarettes) and neutral comparison paraphernalia (e.g., pencils). Craving ratings were collected before and after both cue presentations while physiological measures (heart rate, skin conductance) were collected before and during the cue presentations. Although craving levels decreased across sessions, smoking-related cues consistently evoked significantly greater increases in craving relative to neutral cues over all four experimental sessions. Skin conductance was higher in response to smoking cues, though this effect was not as robust as that observed for craving. Results suggest that, under the described experimental parameters, craving can be reliably elicited over repeated cue reactivity sessions.