Cognitive bias and drug craving in recreational cannabis users

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. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.