ArticleAddictive behaviors reports2019
Convergence between the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale and diagnostic interview for the assessment of alcohol craving.
Article in Addictive behaviors reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Variations in alcohol craving and negative mood during a clinical trial of ibudilast for alcohol use disorder.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Trial
- Biomarker for craving and acamprosate treatment response in patients with alcohol use disorder: insights from multi-omics.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Initial insights into the relationship between symptomatic COVID-19 disease and specific clinical and blood parameters in patients with alcohol use disorder.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Integrated Cognitive Processing Therapy and Relapse Prevention for Co-Occurring PTSD and Alcohol Use Disorder: A Case Series Examining Acceptability and Initial Efficacy.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Evaluating a 30-day alcohol abstinence challenge in heavy-drinking individuals with and without chronic pain: Feasibility, safety, and perceived benefits.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Exploring heterogeneity in recovery from substance use disorder following mindfulness-based relapse prevention: A latent profile analysis.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Article
- Validation of the Chinese Version of Penn Alcohol Craving Scale for Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder.Psychiatry investigation · 2024Article
- Review
- Article
- Effect of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Protracted Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms in Male Alcohol-Dependent Patients.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Article
- A Latent Class Analysis of Psychopathology Among Adults in Residential Substance Use Treatment: Associations With Craving and Treatment Dropout.Substance use : research and treatmentArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionThe Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure craving for alcohol. Recent research has suggested that scores on the PACS can be used as a "stand in" for the diagnostic criterion of alcohol craving with a proposed cutoff of >20 on the PACS indicating a "positive" alcohol craving symptom. The present study examined the convergence between the PACS and face-to-face diagnostic interview for the assessment of alcohol craving.
methodA sample of non-treatment seeking heavy drinkers (N = 338) enrolled in experimental studies of AUD completed the PACS as well as a face-to-face diagnostic interview for AUD, which included the craving item from the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA).
resultsUsing the PACS cut-off score of >20, 12.9% (N = 43) of the sample met criteria for alcohol craving compared to 21% (N = 74) of the sample meeting criteria based on the diagnostic interview. Using the PACS cutoff of >20, sensitivity (i.e., true positive rate) was 41% and specificity (i.e., true negative rate) was 95%. Exploratory analyses suggested that a cut-off score of ≥15 achieved the optimal balance of sensitivity (67%) and specificity (81%) in our sample.
conclusionsAdvancing the assessment of alcohol craving and the conversion from DSM-IV to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria represents an important research direction. The present study recommends that a PACS score cut off of ≥15 should be used as an indicator of clinically significant alcohol craving in community samples of non-treatment seekers.
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