Medication effects on cue‐induced craving in the human laboratory are associated with return to heavy drinking in randomized clinical trials for alcohol use disorder: A follow‐up meta‐analysis

Key Points

• Examine how medication effects on cue-induced craving correlate with heavy drinking returns in alcohol use disorder.
• Conducted a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials regarding medications for alcohol use disorder.
• Evaluated the relationship between cue-induced craving reductions and rates of heavy drinking.
• Analyzed outcome-specific trends in the efficacy of medications.
• Greater reductions in cue-induced craving correlate with lower rates of heavy drinking returns.
• However, these relationships do not consistently apply to other drinking outcomes.
• Indicates limited overall validity of cue-reactivity as a universal clinical efficacy marker.