University of Twente Student Theses
Understanding the Effect of Age on Alcohol Craving in Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder : An Exploration of a Virtual Reality Measurement of Craving
Stiewe, Anna-Lena (2022) Understanding the Effect of Age on Alcohol Craving in Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder : An Exploration of a Virtual Reality Measurement of Craving.
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| Abstract: | Alcohol use disorder (AUD) describes one of the main psychiatric disorders that can result in bodily and psychological damages. An important construct in the continuation of addiction is alcohol craving, an unmanageable urge to drink alcohol (Kavanagh et al., 2013). Although various studies investigated age as an influencing variable of craving, the existing literature remains contradictory. While previous studies often relied on questionnaires assessing craving the present study included Virtual Reality (VR) to measure momentous levels of craving as induced by VR environments. The present study aimed to identify whether age moderates the relationship of participants’ level of general and cue-induced craving. The study incorporated a cross-sectional design. 67 participants from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona took part in the study. Participants were exposed to four alcohol related VR environments. Age has not been found to moderate the relationship between general craving and cue-induced craving consistently over the four VR environments. Higher levels of general craving have been found to result in higher levels of cue-induced craving. The results on the effect of age have been based on a more profound and up-to-date statistical analysis. Additionally, the inclusion of VR represents an ecologically valid and momentous assessment instrument of craving. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/90811 |
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