Alcohol Craving Scale-3Factors (ACS-3F) retrospectively assesses the period during which the subject consumed alcohol. It includes 33 descriptions grouped in three scales: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and impaired control. Tiffany emphasized the poor correlation between self-reported drug urges and the physiological effects of drug-associated stimuli. Our main objective in this project was to investigate the psychophysiological relationship between ACS-3F and the startle reflex modulation.

We hypothesized that the assessment of self-reported craving with ACS-3F would correlate with the non-conscious emotional response to these cues represented by the modulation of the acoustic startle response.

55 alcoholic patients (29 abstainers and 26 relapsers) were exposed to acoustic startle test after three weeks of detoxification treatment. In this study, the difference between the amplitude of the startle reflex associated to images related to alcohol and the one associated to neutral images was used as dependent variable (motivational value of alcohol cues [MVAC]=startle amplitude in the presence of alcohol images-startle amplitude of neutral images).

The abstainer group showed a significant inverse correlation (r=-0.475, p<0.05) between craving total score in ACS-3F and the motivational value of alcohol cues [MVAC]. With regards to craving, the group of relapsers did not correlate with startle modulation.

ACS-3F has adequate properties of concurrent validity. Results in abstainers showed a good correlation between retrospective craving self-reported and non-conscious emotional response to alcohol cues.