Although drinking urges and cravings are commonly reported by alcoholics, prospective studies have found inconsistent associations between such urges and drinking relapses. Previous studies have measured drinking urges by use of single-item ratings of alcohol craving or other measures of unknown reliability and validity. To permit improved evaluation of hypotheses regarding alcohol craving, a 49-item questionnaire that reflects several urge-related domains was developed and pretested. Items assessed subjects' desire for a drink, expectations of positive effects following drinking, relief of withdrawal and negative affect following drinking, and intention to drink. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the responses of 351 abstinent, treatment-seeking alcoholics indicated that alcohol urges are best described by a single factor. Based on these analyses, an internally consistent, reliable, and psychometrically valid 8-item scale, the Alcohol Urge Questionnaire (AUQ), was developed. Data indicated that AUQ scores were strongly related to alcohol dependence severity and to cognitive preoccupation with alcohol, and that they declined with prolonged abstinence. The AUQ may be useful in alcoholism treatment research and in laboratory studies of reactivity to alcohol or other manipulations.

The role of the amygdala in major depression was investigated. Resting regional cerebral metabolic rate (rCMRglu) was measured with [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) in two samples of subjects using two different PET cameras. The samples consisted of 10 and 17 medication-free depressives and 11 and 13 controls, respectively. Using coregistration of PET and magnetic resonance images, regions were individually delineated for the amygdala and thalamus, the latter of which was used as a control region. Within the depressed groups, right amygdalar rCMRglu was positively correlated with negative affect. Thalamic rCMRglu was not related to negative affect, and amygdalar rCMRglu accounted for a significant portion of variance in depressives' negative affect scores over and above the contribution of thalamic rCMRglu.

The findings in this study suggest that at long-term follow-up the majority of individuals who have undergone gastric bypass feel that the procedure benefited them, although some complications including difficulties with "plugging" and vomiting were present at long-term follow-up.

Preferences and cravings for sweet high-fat foods observed among obese and bulimic patients may involve the endogenous opioid peptide system. The opioid antagonist naloxone, opioid agonist butorphanol, and saline placebo were administered by intravenous infusion to 14 female binge eaters and 12 normal-weight controls. Eight of the binge eaters were obese. During infusion, the subjects tasted 20 sugar/fat mixtures and were allowed to select and consume snack foods of varying sugar and fat content. Naloxone reduced taste preferences relative to baseline in both binge eaters and controls. Total caloric intake from snacks was significantly reduced by naloxone in binge eaters but not in controls. This reduction was most pronounced for sweet high-fat foods such as cookies or chocolate. No consistent effects on taste preferences or food intakes were observed with butorphanol. Endogenous opioid peptides may be involved in mediating taste responses and preferences for palatable foods, notably those rich in sugar and fat.