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Abstract
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.
The existence of conditioned abstinence reactions to drug-related stimuli in drug-free drug addicts has been reported by Teasdale (1973), Sideroff and Jarvik (1980), and Hugdahl and Ternes (1981) (see Table 1).
The present study (conducted in 1980) investigated the possibility that alcohol-related slides produce significant changes in physiological measures (heart rate), subjective ratings (craving, anxiety, and heart rate), and global observations (tension and relaxation) compared to non-alcohol-related stimuli.