Urges/craving to smoke: Preliminary results from withdrawing and continuing smokers

Urges/craving to use drugs may be conceptualized as affective states indexing appetite motivation for drug use. To explore urges/cravings among cigarette smokers, we measured attitudinal/verbal, physiological and behavioral responses of withdrawing, continuing and non-smokers under experimental conditions theoretically or empirically related to enhanced urges/craving to smoke, i.e. drug-associated stimuli, drug-availability and noxious stimulation. Preliminary results suggested that urges/craving to smoke might be subserved by different processes in withdrawing and continuing smokers. They differed in phasic heart rate responses, self-reported mood, arousal and drug craving. Of particular interest, for withdrawing smokers self-reported craving was associated with negative affect, whereas for continuing smokers craving was associated with positive affect or low levels of negative affect. These findings are discussed in the context of current theory.