Heart rate variability biofeedback (HRV-BF) involves slow paced breathing (approximately six breaths per minute), thereby maximizing low-frequent heart rate oscillations and baroreflex gain. Mounting evidence suggests that HRV-BF promotes symptom reductions in a variety of physical and mental disorders. It may also positively affect eating behavior by reducing food cravings. The aim of the curr...

Intrusive thoughts about food may play a role in unhealthy eating behaviours. Food-related thoughts that capture attention can lead to craving and further intrusive thoughts (Kavanagh, Andrade, & May, 2005). We tested whether diverting attention to mental images or bodily sensations would reduce the incidence of intrusive thoughts about snack foods. In two experiments, participants reported the...

This paper attempts to summarize the measurement of craving with four different craving instruments and to relate this to definitions and measurement of relapse. The definitions of relapse may vary between studies and researchers, but are usually well defined. Five commonly used methods to measure relapse are: (1) quantity/frequency of drinking; (2) cumulative duration of abstinence (CDA); (3) ...

In order to determine the effects of selective food restriction on subsequent food intake and cravings, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: carbohydrate-restriction, protein-restriction, or control (no restriction). Participants in the restriction conditions were asked to restrict their intake of either complex carbohydrates or animal proteins for 3 days, before comi...

Craving is a major motivator underlying drug use and relapse but the neural correlates of cannabis craving are not well understood. This study sought to determine whether visual cannabis cues increase cannabis craving and whether cue-induced craving is associated with regional brain activation in cannabis-dependent individuals. Cannabis craving was assessed in 16 cannabis-dependent adult volunt...

Sexual addiction otherwise known as compulsive sexual behavior is associated with serious psychosocial problems and risk-taking behavior. This study used the Cybersex addiction test, Craving for pornography questionnaire, and a Questionnaire on intimacy among 267 participants (192 males and 75 females) mean age for males 28.16 (SD = 6.8) and for females 25.5 (SD = 5.13) who were recruited from ...

Rare changes in a stream of otherwise repeated task-irrelevant sounds break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task by triggering shifts of attention to and from the deviant sound (deviance distraction). Evidence indicates that the involuntary orientation of attention to unexpected sounds is followed by their semantic processing. However, past demonstrati...

objectives: this study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on craving, symptoms of depression and anxiety among the patients under mmt. methods: in this experimental study, 36 opiate addicts under mmt were selected out of all the patients referring to iranian national center of addiction studies on a judgmental sampling method and were randomly allocated ...