Elman Igor, Karlsgodt Katherine H, Gastfriend David R, Chabris Christopher F, Breiter Hans C
Department of Psychiatry, Motivation and Emotion Neuroscience Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston 02114, USA.
J Psychopharmacol. 2002 Jun;16(2):163-7. doi: 10.1177/026988110201600207.
Several lines of evidence suggest a link between cocaine-primed craving and depressive symptomatology. The purpose of this study was to directly relate these two clinical phenomena. Thirty-three cocaine-dependent subjects were rated on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) at baseline and then administered an i.v. bolus of cocaine (0.2 mg/kg). Multiple regression analysis revealed that only the HRSD score was an independent predictor of cocaine-primed craving (F= 4.09; d.f. = 10,22; r = 0.81, p < 0.003) when baseline spontaneous craving during early withdrawal, age, gender, frequency of use, time since last use, monetary expenditure on cocaine and the Addiction Severity Index Drug Composite Scores were considered. These data support the hypothesis that depressive symptomatology affects cocaine-primed craving and that this relationship is relatively specific to symptoms defined by the HRSD and is not seen with a number of other clinical and demographic variables.
