title: Cognitive bias and drug craving in recreational cannabis users.
abstract: Recent theories propose that repeated drug use is associated with attentional and evaluative biases for drug-related stimuli, and that these cognitive biases are related to individual differences in subjective craving. This study investigated cognitive biases for cannabis-related cues in recreational cannabis users. Seventeen regular cannabis users and 16 non-users completed a visual probe task which assessed attentional biases for cannabis-related words, and an implicit association test (IAT) which assessed implicit positive or negative associations for cannabis-related words. Results from the IAT indicated more negative associations for cannabis-related words in non-users compared to users. Among cannabis users, those with high levels of cannabis craving had a significant attentional bias for cannabis-related words on the visual probe task, but those with low levels of craving did not. Results highlight the role of craving in attentional biases for cannabis-related stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Study of Emotion and Motivation, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. m.j.field@soton.ac.uk
authors.forename: Matt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Field
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mogg
authors.forename: Brendan P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Bradley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008297:Male; D002189:Marijuana Abuse / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs