Cue Reactivity

Cue reactivity is a phenomenon of addiction found in numerous laboratory studies showing that people who are addicted to drugs have significant physiological and subjective reactions to presentations of drug-related stimuli. In investigations of these reactions, addicts are exposed to both drug-related cues (e.g., cigarettes, bottles of alcohol, drug paraphernalia) and drug-neutral cues (e.g., pencils, glasses of water, a set of car keys) while changes in craving self-report, physiological responses, and, less frequently, drug-use behaviors are monitored.