Stress, craving, and depressed mood have all been implicated in alcohol use treatment lapses. Few studies have examined all 3 factors. Progress has been limited because of difficulties with craving assessment. The Alcohol Craving Experience Questionnaire (ACE) is a new measure of alcohol craving. It is both psychometrically sound and conceptually rigorous. This prospective study examines a stress-treatment response model that incorporates mediation by craving and moderation by depressed mood and pharmacotherapy.
Five hundred and thirty-nine consecutively treated alcohol-dependent patients voluntarily participated in an abstinence-based 12-week cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) program at a hospital alcohol and drug outpatient clinic. Measures of stress, craving, depressed mood, and alcohol dependence severity were administered prior to treatment. Treatment lapse and treatment dropout were assessed over the 12-week program duration.
Patients reporting greater stress experienced stronger and more frequent cravings. Stronger alcohol craving predicted lapse, after controlling for dependence severity, stress, depression, and pharmacotherapy. Alcohol craving mediated stress to predict lapse. Depressed mood and anticraving medication were not significant moderators.
Among treatment seeking, alcohol-dependent patients, craving mediated the relationship between stress and lapse. The effect was not moderated by depressed mood or anticraving medication.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
3
3%
Nursing and Health Professions
3
3%
Other
7
7%
Unknown
31
32%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 March 2016.
All research outputs
#24,815,998
of 34,447,360 outputs
Outputs from Alcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research
#3,889
of 4,941 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#226,768
of 338,392 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Alcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research
#45
of 60 outputs
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