Cravings and Expectancies

Drug-dependent individuals commonly report craving, which is an urge to consume a substance to experience pleasure or provide relief. However, the motivation to use drugs is also influenced by the expectancies we hold about drug ingestion. Drug expectancies are among a range of internal and external cues that can elicit craving. Scientific advances in the neurobiology of reward have illuminated individual differences in the neurotransmitter systems involved in associative learning that underpin drug use motivation and expectancies. We have begun to elaborate the interrelationships of these constructs and mechanisms to inform new treatments that incorporate recent models of reward learning.