Anxiety Sensitivity is Associated with Lower Enjoyment and an Anxiogenic Response to Physical Activity in Smokers

Abstract

Background:The subjective affective response to, and enjoyment of, physical activity are strong predictors of engagement in physical activity. Anxiety sensitivity, the fear of bodily sensations, is a cognitive factor that may inhibit the pleasurable affective experience of physical activity, possibly contributing to low levels of physical activity. The current study evaluated anxiety sensitivity in relation to PA enjoyment and affective experience before and after exercise in smokers.Method: Participants were low-active treatment-seeking smokers (n = 201) enrolled in a smoking cessation intervention. At baseline, participants completed self -report assessments of anxiety sensitivity, cigarette dependence, and physical activity enjoyment. State affect was also reported before and after a submaximal exercise test to index pre-exercise activity affect and affective response to exercise.Results: Anxiety sensitivity was significantly negatively correlated with physical activity enjoyment, specifically lower enjoyable physical feelings of physical activity. Anxiety sensitivity was significantly correlated with lower state mood and higher state anxiety prior to the submaximal exercise test, and higher anxiety immediately after the exercise test. Additionally, anxiety sensitivity predicted increased anxiety, but not lower mood, in response to the submaximal exercise test.Conclusions: This is the first study to document an association of anxiety sensitivity with affective determinants of physical activity behavior in smokers. Anxiety sensitivity was associated with lower physical activity enjoyment, higher negative affect prior to after exercise testing, and an anxiogenic response to exercise. Future work is needed to understand how the current findings generalize beyond smokers.

“No Pain, More Gain”? Affect and Adherence to Exercise in Migraine Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study

“…Lastly, but not least, anxiety-related processes may eventually underlie the negative affect-exercise adherence relationship, as anxiety sensitivity has shown to moderate the affective response to exercise in other clinical populations (29). Farris's group showed that in low-active smokers seeking treatment for smoking cessation, anxiety sensitivity negatively associated with physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES) and correlated with anxiety and mood in the 1-mile walk test (29).…”

“…Lastly, but not least, anxiety-related processes may eventually underlie the negative affect-exercise adherence relationship, as anxiety sensitivity has shown to moderate the affective response to exercise in other clinical populations (29). Farris's group showed that in low-active smokers seeking treatment for smoking cessation, anxiety sensitivity negatively associated with physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES) and correlated with anxiety and mood in the 1-mile walk test (29). The authors ponder that anxiety sensitivity may attenuate positive physical feelings (enjoyable feelings) elicited by physical activity, exacerbate the forcasting of negative affective and physical outcomes, resulting in affective states that contribute to avoidance behavior (29).…”

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“…Consistent with some research in the past, we also found that one's anxiety level was negatively correlated with one's PA enjoyment. While studying 2,001 low-active treating-seeking smokers, Farris et al also discovered a negative correlation between anxiety and PA enjoyment [51].…”

Synthesis of Novel Nicotinic Ligands with Multimodal Action: Targeting Acetylcholine α4β2, Dopamine and Serotonin Transporters

“…Graph obtained for the displacement experiments of [ 3 H]-paroxetine for the synthesized compounds [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21] in the cellular background h-SERT induced to 2.5 × 10 −5 M concentration. Fluoxetine (Flx) was used as a control for the compounds under study.…”

“…However, the success of these strategies must so far be considered limited, as the only α4β2 ligands currently approved for medical use are the partial α4β2 nAChR agonists Varenicline [10], a partial agonist which binds to α4β2 nAChRs with higher affinity but lower efficacy than nicotine, and Cytisine (Figure 1) [11], both of which are used as a smoking cessation aids [12,13]. Varenicline (Figure 1) elicits a moderate and sustained increase of dopamine levels in the brain reward system [14,15], which would elevate low dopamine levels observed during smoking cessation attempts [16].…”