Observational Study
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World J Clin Cases. Jan 21, 2022; 10(3): 882-890
Published online Jan 21, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i3.882
Craving variations in patients with substance use disorder and gambling during COVID-19 lockdown: The Italian experience
Maria Chiara Alessi, Giovanni Martinotti, Domenico De Berardis, Antonella Sociali, Chiara Di Natale, Gianna Sepede, Daniela Pia Rosaria Cheffo, Laura Monti, Pietro Casella, Mauro Pettorruso, Stefano Sensi, Massimo Di Giannantonio
Maria Chiara Alessi, Giovanni Martinotti, Antonella Sociali, Chiara Di Natale, Gianna Sepede, Mauro Pettorruso, Stefano Sensi, Massimo Di Giannantonio, Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, Clinical Sciences, University G. d'Annunzio, Chieti-Pescara 66100, Italy
Giovanni Martinotti, Department of Pharmacy, Pharmacology, Clinical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, United Kingdom
Domenico De Berardis, National Health Care System, Mazzini Hospital, Teramo 64100, Italy
Daniela Pia Rosaria Cheffo, Laura Monti, Department of Mental Health, UOS Psicologia Ospedaliera Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli IRCSS, Rome 00118, Italy
Pietro Casella, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, ASL Roma 1, Rome 00118, Italy
Author contributions: Martinotti G and Alessi MC designed the study and wrote the protocol; Sociali A and Di Natale C conducted literature searches and provided summaries of previous research studies; Sepede G conducted the statistical analysis; Casella P, Martinotti G, Sociali A, Cheffo DPR, Monti L, De Berardis D, and Sensi S recruited the patients with COVID; Martinotti G, Pettorruso M, and Di Giannantonio M wrote the first draft of the manuscript; and all authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Sciences of the University G. d'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara (Prot. 042/2020) and fully complied with the guidelines of the Ethical Committee.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Giovanni Martinotti has been a consultant and/or a speaker and/or has received research grants from Angelini, Doc Generici, Janssen, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer. Massimo di Giannantonio has been a consultant and/or a speaker and/or has received research grants from Angelini, Janssen, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer, Recordati.
Data sharing statement: Raw data and all the statistical procedures are available upon request to the corresponding author.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Domenico De Berardis, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Chief Doctor, National Health Care System, Mazzini Hospital, Piazza Italia 1, Teramo 64100, Italy. domenico.deberardis@aslteramo.it
Received: February 8, 2021
Peer-review started: February 8, 2021
First decision: March 8, 2021
Revised: March 18, 2021
Accepted: December 22, 2021
Article in press: December 22, 2021
Published online: January 21, 2022
Processing time: 340 Days and 20.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Our data suggest that craving, regardless of whether determined by substances or behaviors, was globally reduced in a period that could be highly stressogenic such as the coronavirus disease-2019 lockdown.