Stress increases attentional bias for alcohol cues in social drinkers who drink to cope

AIMS: To investigate the effects of stress on alcohol craving and attentional bias for alcohol-related cues in a group of heavy social drinkers. METHOD: Forty-four heavy social drinkers were exposed to either a laboratory stressor task or a control manipulation before completing a questionnaire measure of alcohol craving and a visual probe task which measured attentional bias for alcohol-related cues. Participants were subdivided into those with high and low levels of coping motives for drinking. RESULTS: Compared to a control manipulation, the laboratory stressor task produced increases in alcohol craving (P < 0.01). The laboratory stressor task also produced a significant attentional bias for alcohol-related cues, but only among participants who had high levels of coping motives (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Findings are broadly consistent with contemporary negative reinforcement models of substance abuse, and with models of subjective craving and attentional biases for substance-related cues.