TY - JOUR
T1 - Eliciting nicotine craving with virtual smoking cues
AU - Gamito, Pedro
AU - Oliveira, Jorge
AU - Baptista, André
AU - Morais, Diogo
AU - Lopes, Paulo
AU - Rosa, Pedro
AU - Santos, Nuno
AU - Brito, Rodrigo
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Craving is a strong desire to consume that emerges in every case of substance addiction. Previous studies have shown that eliciting craving with an exposure cues protocol can be a useful option for the treatment of nicotine dependence. Thus, the main goal of this study was to develop a virtual platform in order to induce craving in smokers. Fifty-five undergraduate students were randomly assigned to two different virtual environments: high arousal contextual cues and low arousal contextual cues scenarios (17 smokers with low nicotine dependency were excluded). An eye-tracker system was used to evaluate attention toward these cues. Eye fixation on smoking-related cues differed between smokers and nonsmokers, indicating that smokers focused more often on smoking-related cues than nonsmokers. Self-reports of craving are in agreement with these results and suggest a significant increase in craving after exposure to smoking cues. In sum, these data support the use of virtual environments for eliciting craving.
AB - Craving is a strong desire to consume that emerges in every case of substance addiction. Previous studies have shown that eliciting craving with an exposure cues protocol can be a useful option for the treatment of nicotine dependence. Thus, the main goal of this study was to develop a virtual platform in order to induce craving in smokers. Fifty-five undergraduate students were randomly assigned to two different virtual environments: high arousal contextual cues and low arousal contextual cues scenarios (17 smokers with low nicotine dependency were excluded). An eye-tracker system was used to evaluate attention toward these cues. Eye fixation on smoking-related cues differed between smokers and nonsmokers, indicating that smokers focused more often on smoking-related cues than nonsmokers. Self-reports of craving are in agreement with these results and suggest a significant increase in craving after exposure to smoking cues. In sum, these data support the use of virtual environments for eliciting craving.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84905512366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/cyber.2013.0329
DO - 10.1089/cyber.2013.0329
M3 - Article
C2 - 24660864
AN - SCOPUS:84905512366
SN - 2152-2715
VL - 17
SP - 556
EP - 561
JO - Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
JF - Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
IS - 8
ER -