Cognitive bias and drug craving in recreational cannabis users

Field, Matt, Mogg, Karin and Bradley, Brendan P. (2004) Cognitive bias and drug craving in recreational cannabis users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 74 (1), 105-111. (doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2003.12.005).

Record type: Article

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.

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