Craving in substance use disorders with a focus on cigarette smoking

Craving has been one of the most thoroughly studied and hotly debated constructs in the field of addiction. There is widespread agreement that craving is a clinically significant feature of addiction, but many important conceptual issues remain unresolved. This chapter provides a brief overview of some of these issues, with a focus on craving for cigarettes and smoking behavior. We first consider the association between craving and desire and question whether craving manifests as a linear or nonlinear phenomenon. We then briefly address the effects of craving on self-regulation, including research demonstrating that craving leads to clinically relevant shifts in cognitive processing. Finally, we discuss the increasingly common approach of studying craving using functional brain imaging methods and the complementary role that neuroimaging and behavioral methods can serve in advancing the science of craving.