CONCEPT OF CRAVING AND ITS MEASUREMENT

By encouraging short periods of abstinence, conditions representing high and low craving were arranged in the homes of 10 alcoholic subjects on two separate occasions. The alcoholic's subjective, physiological and behavioural responses and their interrelationships over a three and a half-hour response prevention period, were recorded in an attempt to define the concept of craving. A behavioural measure, speed of drinking a prescribed amount of alcohol, was validated as a correlate of craving. © 1979.