Cue-induced cigarette and food craving: a common effect?

Cue-induced cravings may hinder behavior change efforts such as smoking cessation. Correlation of cue-induced cravings across multiple stimuli would provide evidence for a cue-reactive phenotype that may have implications for behavior change therapies. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between cue-induced cravings for cigarettes and cue-induced cravings for a highly preferred food (chocolate) in a sample of smokers not subjected to lengthy deprivation for either of these two appetitive outcomes. Adult smokers (N=164) were assessed for chocolate cravings before and after exposure to chocolate cues and cigarette cravings before and after exposure to smoking cues. Consistent with previous reports, cigarette cravings increased significantly post-cue exposure and chocolate cravings increased significantly post-cue exposure (p's<.0001). Consistent with study hypotheses, the magnitude of the increase in chocolate cravings after cue-exposure was significantly related to the increase in post-cue cigarette cravings (r=0.38; p<.0001), and was significantly related to scores on a retrospective, self-report, measure of cue-induced food cravings in daily life. These findings are consistent with the idea of a general "cue-reactive" phenotype that varies across individuals, a conceptualization of risk that may point the way toward improved interventions for a variety of hedonically mediated behaviors with negative health outcomes.