Real-time craving and mood assessments before and after smoking

Abstract

This study explored some quandaries concerning craving and mood as motivators to smoke. Craving and negative mood have long been associated with day-to-day smoking as two of the primary motivational forces behind the maintenance of the behavior, as well as significant barriers in smokers’ attempts to quit. Craving remains a clinically relevant phenomenon, with most smokers describing craving as a troublesome problem when quitting. Smokers’ self-reports of negative mood, as an antecedent for smoking, are so robustly reported that many models of nicotine dependence have incorporated a critical role for negative mood in maintaining smoking behavior. However, several naturalistic studies that collected mood ratings with hand held computers from smokers in real time, just before smoking a cigarette, have provided scant evidence that negative mood plays a major role in motivation to smoke. No study to date has examined craving and mood data as a consequence of smoking, that is, collecting the same data immediately after smoking. This study used personal digital assistants (PDAs) to collect craving and mood data immediately before smoking, immediately after smoking, and at random times of day. Nontreatment seeking smokers (N=72) carried a PDA for an average of 10 days while they recorded their smoking behavior. Results showed that craving and negative mood ratings were lowest immediately after smoking compared with immediately before smoking and at random times of day. These findings suggest that smokers may be at least partially motivated to smoke to lower their craving and improve their mood states.

Craving to quit: Psychological models and neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness training as treatment for addictions.

“…This process sets up positive or negative reinforcement loops respectively, by reinforcing the associative memories between these affective states and smoking (see Figure 1) (Baker et al, 2004;Bevins & Palmatier, 2004;Brandon & Baker, 1991;Carmody, Vieten, & Astin, 2007;Carter et al, 2008;Carter & Tiffany, 2001;Cook et al, 2004;Hall et al, 1993;Hyman, 2007;Rose & Levin, 1991;Warburton & Mancuso, 1998). This associative learning process may then lead to increased motivational salience of future cues (in which both positive and negative cues become more motivationally relevant) (Gross, Jarvik, & Rosenblatt, 1993;Laviolette & van der Kooy, 2004;Olausson, Jentsch, & Taylor, 2004;Robinson & Berridge, 2003;Robinson & Berridge, 1993;Robinson & Berridge, 2008;Waters et al, 2003), resulting in what, building on the work of Baker, Curtin and others (Baker et al, 2004;Curtin et al, 2006), for convenience we term the "addictive loop."…”

Implicit approach–avoidance associations for craved food cues.

“…Cravings are one of the main reasons why people fail to abstain from smoking, alcohol consumption and drug use (Carter et al, 2008). Even in people who have quit substance use, they can often trigger a relapse (Shiffman et al, 1997).…”

Generalized craving, self-report of arousal, and cue reactivity after brief abstinence

“…Indeed, a number of naturalistic studies have shown that craving is associated with smoking and relapse ( Bagot, Heishman, & Moolchan, 2007 ;Carter et al, 2008 ;Shiffman et al, 2002 ). Not surprisingly, self-report of craving is perhaps the most studied of cue responses.…”