Clinical effectiveness of attentional bias modification training in abstinent alcoholic patients.

A new training to decrease attentional bias (attentional bias modification training, ABM) was tested in a randomized controlled experimental study with alcohol-dependent patients as an addition to cognitive behavioral therapy. In alcohol dependence, attentional bias has been associated with severity of alcoholism, craving, treatment outcome, and relapse. Forty-three patients with DSM-IV diagnosis of alcohol dependence were randomly assigned to an ABM intervention or control training.