Conditioned abstinence in alcoholics: a controlled experiment

The existence of conditioned abstinence symptoms in 16 abstinent alcoholics was investigated by comparing their subjective, physiological, and behavioral responses while viewing slides of alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related stimuli. The alcoholics were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group viewed a set of six alcohol-related slides the first day and a set of six non-alcohol-related slides the following day. The second group looked at the same slides, but the order of presentation was reversed. Alcohol-related slides produced significantly greater increases in subjectively reported alcohol craving and anxiety scores. There were no differences between the two sets with regard to physiological measures or subjective reports of heart rate. The global observations showed significant differences between the alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related slides.