Women Inmate Substance Abusers' Reactivity to Visual Alcohol, Cigarette, Marijuana, and Crack Cocaine Cues

In the present study, we evaluated the reliability, specificity, and validity of a set of visual alcohol, cigarette, marijuana, and crack cocaine cues in comparison to consumable non-drug control cues. The study extended a previously designed cue reactivity methodology, which was originally tested on a college student sample, to a clinical sample of substance abusers in a prison-based residential treatment program. The methodology is based on a multidimensional conceptualization that defines substance cue reactivity in terms of two separate but related dimensions: inclination to approach and consume the drug, and inclination to withdraw and avoid consuming the drug. Participants in this study were 155 incarcerated women who were participating in or waiting to begin participation in a nine-month drug treatment program. Participants rated the drug and comparison cues (food and non-alcoholic beverages) in terms of their arousing properties and their capacity to elicit separate approach and avoidance inclinations. Participants also completed a battery of substance-related individual difference measures. Results indicated that our alcohol, cigarette, marijuana, and crack cocaine cues had good reliability, and our cigarette, marijuana, and crack cocaine cues showed high specificity. Results also supported the utility of measuring approach and avoidance as separate dimensions, by demonstrating meaningful clinical distinctions between groups evincing different reactivity patterns, which were observable across three of the four drugs.