Negative mood effects on craving to smoke in women versus men

Citations: Negative mood experiences often increase craving and risk of relapse among those trying to quit smoking (Baker, Piper, McCarthy, Majeskie, & Fiore, 2004; Shiffman & Waters, 2004) Even among those not trying to quit, negative mood situations can increase craving to smoke (Maude-Griffin & Tiffany, 1996; Perkins & Grobe, 1992; Willner & Jones, 1996) These findings on craving may help explain greater smoking behavior during the experience of acute negative mood and the resulting negative affect (e.g., Conklin & Perkins, 2005; Rose, Ananda, & Jarvik, 1983; see also Kassel, Stroud, & Paronis, 2003) (Mood is defined here as the situational context for smoking, while affect is the subjective emotion produced by the mood context [e.g., Diener & Emmons, 1984; Mayer, Salovey,Gomberg-Kaufman, & Blainey, 1991; Salovey, 1992]) Craving responses to negative mood situations, such as smoking abstinence or other causes, may be greater in women than men, perhaps consistent with other research suggesting greater smoking reward and behavior of women in response to more direct smoking-related stimuli (Perkins, 2009) Greater craving due to negative mood situations could also help explain the often greater difficulty women have with quitting smoking (e.g., Perkins, 2001) In one study, for example, women reported a greater increase in negative affect (tension-anxiety subscale of the POMS) due to overnight abstinence, and also greater subsequent relief of that negative affect by resuming smoking, compared to men (Xu et al., 2008) In other studies, compared to men, women seeking treatment to quit report greater motivation to smoke as a means of controlling stress (McEwen, West, & McRobbie, 2008) Less ability to manage the perceived risks of attempting to quit smoking, which is predictive of poorer cessation outcome (McKee, O'Malley, Salovey, Krishnan-Sarin, & Mazure, 2005) Even in a study of non-abstinent smokers, women reported a greater decline in a single desire to smoke item (i.e. craving relief) than men after smoking a single cigarette through a topography device (Eissenberg, Adams, Riggins, & Likness, 1999)

Experimental manipulations of mood contexts may provide clearer findings on the influence of negative mood on craving and other responses (see Cheetham, Allen, Yucel, & Lubman, 2010) In two recent studies, non-abstinent smokers were exposed to induction of negative versus neutral mood via music (Weinberger & McKee, 2011) or film clips (Fucito & Juliano, 2009). Both studies randomized subjects to the different mood conditions, and a withinsubjects comparison of mood effects may increase statistical power to find sex differences in craving responses to negative versus neutral mood per se (e.g., Fleiss, 1986) In both sessions, all participants first received an overview of the procedures that would follow the affect and craving assessments analyzed here. Briefly, each session involved administration of a separate (but comparable) set of neutral mood slides, which were intended to equate subject attention during the later periods of each session (see Perkins et al., 2010) Research Problem Across two separate within-subjects studies, we examined sex differences in craving as functions of brief smoking abstinence and acute induction of negative mood.

Variables Study 1 Participants in Study 1 (n=105; 63 male, 42 female) Nominal Measurement Scale: Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence Subjective negative affect was assessed with the five items of the Negative Affect subscale of the Diener and Emmons (1984) Mood Form (0100 visual analog scale, or VAS, with 0 and 100 anchored by Not at all and Very much, respectively). This subscale asks how depressed/blue, unhappy, frustrated,worried/anxious and angry/hostile the person is feeling. Craving to smoke was assessed by the Questionnaire of Smoking Urges-Brief

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Lesson from the article In two separate studies comparing different negative versus neutral mood situations, either overnight smoking abstinence or an induction procedure involving negative mood slides and music during no abstinence, we found greater increases in craving to smoke among women compared to men, as hypothesized.

Genetic influences on craving for alcohol

Citations: Craving is proposed to be defined as strong desire or urge to use a specific substance. The preliminary rationale for the addition of craving arose from three sources its inclusion in the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) (World Health Organization, 2007)

Definition of substance use disorders, neurobiological experiments supporting cueelicited craving (Childress et al., 1999; Kalivas & O'Brien, 2008; Kalivas & Volkow, 2005; Volkowet al., 2006) There is little doubt that craving is an integral aspect of substance use disorders numerous epidemiological (Keyes, Krueger, Grant, & Hasin, 2011; Mewton, Slade, McBride, Grove, & Teesson, 2011) and emergency room (Cherpitel et al., 2010) Those who report craving are typically already classified as substance dependent due to endorsement of multiple (often more than 3) dependence criteria; craving further discriminates these most severely affected individuals (i.e. those with multiple other symptoms (Bohn, Krahn, & Staehler, 1995; Bucholz et al., 1996) Consequently, the addition of craving as a criterion does not produce a significant increase in those diagnosed with alcohol use disorders (Agrawal, Heath, & Lynskey, 2011; Cherpitel et al., 2010; Keyes et al., 2011; Mewton et al.,2011) Craving has been studied in the context of drug compulsion, and consequently as a correlate of relapse, particularly under negative emotional states (Marlatt & Gordon, 1985) Studies of cue-elicited craving report activation in brain regions that constitute dopamine pathways. For instance, Childress et al. (1999), Dopamine-rich regions such as the ventral tegmental area (VTA) have been implicated in the neuroplasticity underlying the development of addiction and the emergence of craving (Kalivas & O'Brien, 2008) Research Problem Craving is being considered for inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) DSM-5. However, little is known of its genetic underpinnings specifically, whether genetic influences on cravingare distinct from those influencing DSM-IV alcohol dependence. Kind of Data Categorical Data Dopamine receptor genes (DRD1, DRD2, DRD3, DRD4) nominal How they analyzed data PLINK (Purcell et al., 2007) was used to conduct all autosomal association

analyses using logistic regression models. O.R. odds-ratio; lower/upper C.I. lower and upper 95% confidence interval on oddsratio. Position in base pair and gene based on NCBI Histogram Lessons from the topic Craving is frequently reported by those who report multiple other alcohol dependence symptoms. We found that genes providing evidence of association with craving were also associated with alcohol dependence; however, these same SNPs were not associated with alcohol dependence in the absence of alcohol craving. These results suggest that there may be unique genetic factors affecting craving amongthose with alcohol dependence.