Cravings

Unhealthy food marketing is contributing to the obesity epidemic, but real-time insights into the mechanisms of this relationship are under-studied. Digital marketing is growing and following food and beverage (F&B) brands on social media is common, but measurement of exposure and impact of such marketing presents novel challenges. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of collecting data on exposure and impact of digital F&B marketing (DFM) using a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology...

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of administering intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) to the medial prefrontal cortex for tobacco use disorder. METHODS: A randomized sham-controlled trial was conducted, with 38 participants receiving 28 sessions of active (n=25) or sham (n=13) iTBS (2 sessions/day, 600 pulses/session, 110% resting motor threshold, AFz target) along with smoking cessation education (Forever Free © booklets) over 14 visits...

BACKGROUND: The relationship between opioid craving and opioid use is unclear. We sought to determine to what extent craving mediated the relationship between opioid agonist therapy and changes in opioid use. METHODS: Data came from a pragmatic, 24-week, pan-Canadian, multi-centric, open-label, randomized controlled trial comparing flexible buprenorphine/naloxone take-home doses to standard supervised methadone models of care for the treatment of prescription-type opioid use disorder...

The specialized field of forensic psychiatry deals with the care of criminal offenders who suffer from severe mental disorders. As this field is positioned at the intersection of illness, crime, and security, it poses complex challenges. While high-quality clinical studies in forensic psychiatry settings are limited, recent investigations have suggested yoga as a complementary clinical tool within correctional environments. This report of a quasi-experimental study examines the impact of a 10-week trauma-adapted yoga intervention on mental health, antisocial and aggressive behaviors, pain perception, cravings, and character maturity among 56 patients in various forensic psychiatry clinics across Sweden...

OBJECTIVE: It remains unclear which individual or combined strategies are most beneficial for methamphetamine use disorders (MUDs). We compared the effects of aerobic exercise, attentional bias modification, and combined intervention on male patients with MUD. METHOD: One hundred male patients with MUD were randomly assigned to combined intervention, aerobic exercise, attentional bias modification, or control groups (25 patients per group). The 8-week intervention protocol included three 60-minute sessions of aerobic exercises per week...

IMPORTANCE: Perceived social isolation is associated with negative health outcomes, including increased risk for altered eating behaviors, obesity, and psychological symptoms. However, the underlying neural mechanisms of these pathways are unknown. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of perceived social isolation with brain reactivity to food cues, altered eating behaviors, obesity, and mental health symptoms. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional, single-center study recruited healthy, premenopausal female participants from the Los Angeles, California, community from September 7, 2021, through February 27, 2023...

OBJECTIVE: Tumour progression drives profound alterations in host metabolism, such as adipose tissue depletion, an early event of cancer cachexia. As fatty acid consumption by cancer cells increases upon acidosis of the tumour microenvironment, we reasoned that fatty acids derived from distant adipose lipolysis may sustain tumour fatty acid craving, leading to the adipose tissue loss observed in cancer cachexia. METHODS: To evaluate the pro-lipolytic capacities of acid-exposed cancer cells, primary mouse adipocytes from subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue were exposed to pH-matched conditioned medium from human and murine acid-exposed cancer cells (pH 6...

Background: Cannabis use is associated with altered processing of external (exteroceptive) and internal (interoceptive) sensory stimuli. However, little research exists on whether subjective experiences of these processes are altered in people who frequently use cannabis. Altered exteroception may influence externally oriented attention, whereas interoceptive differences have implications for intoxication, craving, and withdrawal states. Objectives: The goal of the current study was to investigate subjective experiences of exteroceptive sensory gating and interoception in people frequently using cannabis...

BACKGROUND: Despite the high frequency of adrenal insufficiency (AI) in patients with tuberculosis or HIV, its diagnosis is often missed or delayed resulting in increased mortality. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to document the prevalence, significant clinical features, and predictors of AI in adult patients with tuberculosis or HIV. METHODS: We systematically searched databases (Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and Africa Journal Online) for published studies on AI in adult patients with tuberculosis or HIV...

INTRODUCTION: Compulsive cyberporn use (CCU) has previously been reported among people who use cyberporn. However, most of the previous studies included convenience samples of students or samples of the general adult population. Research examining the factors that predict or are associated with CCU are still scarce.In this study, we aimed to (a) assess compulsive cyberporn consumption in a broad sample of people who had used cyberporn and (b) determine, among a diverse range of predictor variables, which are most important in CCU scores, as assessed with the eight-item Compulsive Internet Use Scale adapted for cyberporn...

Cues paired with alcohol can be potent drivers of craving, alcohol-seeking, consumption, and relapse. While the ventral pallidum is implicated in appetitive and consummatory responses across several reward classes and types of behaviors, its role in behavioral responses to Pavlovian alcohol cues has not previously been established. Here, we tested the impact of optogenetic inhibition of ventral pallidum on Pavlovian-conditioned alcohol-seeking in male Long Evans rats. Rats underwent Pavlovian conditioning with an auditory cue predicting alcohol delivery to a reward port and a control cue predicting no alcohol delivery, until they consistently entered the reward port more during the alcohol cue than the control cue...

Substance use disorder is characterized by a maladaptive imbalance wherein drug seeking persists despite negative consequences or drug unavailability. This imbalance correlates with neurobiological alterations some of which are amplified during forced abstinence, thereby compromising the capacity of extinction-based approaches to prevent relapse. Cocaine use disorder (CUD) exemplifies this phenomenon in which neurobiological modifications hijack brain reward regions such as the nucleus accumbens (NAc) to manifest craving and withdrawal-like symptoms...

INTRODUCTION: Patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) have a heightened need for quality health care, including access to evidence-based medications to reduce cravings and prevent overdose. However, primary care providers (PCPs) are reluctant to work with patients with OUD and implement medication prescribing into primary care practice. Previous studies have sought to identify potential ways to overcome these barriers, but often utilize interventions that facilitate both positive contact with as well as empathy for patients with OUD...

INTRODUCTION: Chronic weight management and treatments for type 2 diabetes (T2D) involve a combination of lifestyle-based (diet, exercise) and pharmaceutical interventions. In people with obesity or T2D, understanding the impact of drivers/triggers on appetite and eating behaviors can be crucial to successful medical management. This study aimed to characterize perceptions and experiences regarding appetite and eating behaviors among people with obesity or T2D and identify drivers/triggers of food choices...

BACKGROUND: Self-management of opioid use disorder (OUD) is an important component of treatment. Many patients receiving opioid agonist treatment in methadone maintenance treatment settings benefit from counseling treatments to help them improve their recovery skills but have insufficient access to these treatments between clinic appointments. In addition, many addiction medicine clinicians treating patients with OUD in a general medical clinic setting do not have consistent access to counseling referrals for their patients...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Despite high rates of relapse after treatment for drug use, to our knowledge there is no systematic literature identifying psychological factors that predict risk of relapse to drug use (excluding alcohol or tobacco). Our aim was to identify psychological factors that predict risk of relapse to drug use after enrollment in drug use treatment. The identification of such factors can support treatment planning and relapse prevention. METHODS: We searched for peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2023 in PsycINFO, PsycArticles, Web of Science, and PubMed...

BACKGROUND: The decision to make a quit attempt is the first step toward the tobacco cessation process. It is well established in the literature that if someone does not take tobacco till the age of 21 years then his chances of remaining tobacco-free for life are higher than his counterparts who start tobacco at early developmental ages. METHODOLOGY AND TOOLS: The present study was conducted among 400 university undergraduate students. A cross-sectional survey design was used, multi-stage sampling was done, and four colleges were selected via random sampling...

Cue exposure therapy (CET) in substance-use disorders aims to reduce craving and ultimately relapse rates. Applying CET in virtual reality (VR) was proposed to increase its efficacy, as VR enables the presentation of social and environmental cues along with substance-related stimuli. However, limited success has been reported so far when applying VR-CET for smoking cessation. Understanding if effects of VR-CET differ between future abstainers and relapsing smokers may help to improve VR-CET. Data from 102 participants allocated to the intervention arm (VR-CET) of a recent RCT comparing VR-CET to relaxation in the context of smoking cessation was analyzed with respect to tolerability, presence, and craving during VR-CET...

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is highly prevalent among veterans in the United States. Self-regulation skills (e.g., coping and emotion regulation) are important biopsychosocial factors for preventing relapse. However, how variation in self-regulation skills supports abstinence based on contextual demands is understudied in veterans with AUD. METHODS: In a prospective longitudinal design, treatment-seeking veterans (n = 120; 29 females) aged 23-91 with AUD completed the Alcohol Abstinence Self-Efficacy Scale to assess temptation to drink across several high-risk situations (i...

Previous research has indicated that anticipating positive effects from cannabis use may be linked with increased frequency of cannabis consumption, yet these expectancies remain poorly understood in adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Thus, our study aimed to investigate the expectancies of the effects of cannabis use in 26 frequently using adults with SAD (age: 27.9 ± 7.3 years; 54% female) and 26 (age: 27.4 ± 6.7 years; 50% female) without. While no between-group differences were observed, both groups reported expecting tension reduction and relaxation (F = 0...