Cigarette Smoking and Abstinence: Comparative Effects Upon Cognitive Task Performance and Mood State over 24 Hours

Abstract

Twenty regular smokers were assessed over 24-h of normal cigarette smoking, and an equivalent period of abstinence. In both conditions, a non-deprived baseline was followed by performance tests 2, 6 and 24 h later, while subjective feelings were assessed every 2 h. Compared to normal smoking, abstinence led to reduced heart rate, worse task performance, feelings of depression, stress, irritability, restlessness, poor concentration, and urges to smoke. Letter cancellation and number vigilance task performance were significantly poorer after 2 and 6 h of abstinence. Subjective feeling states were significantly worse after 4 h of abstinence, and became increasingly impaired over the rest of the day. However many abstinence symptoms (except heart rate), were reduced in severity at the 24-h session, held on the morning of the following day. This suggests that many of the psychological effects of smoking abstinence, may build-up afresh each day.

REVIEW Nesbitt's Paradox resolved? Stress and arousal modulation during cigarette smoking

“…Snyder, Davis & Henning® eld (1989) reported a pattern of increasing performance decrements over the ® rst day of abstinence, but all comparisons were with pretest baseline (there was no control group), so that learning, fatigue and circadian factors were all confounded with withdrawal effects. Parrott et al (1996) compared attentional task perform ance after 2, 6 and 24 hours of abstinence, with equivalent periods of normal smoking, and found signi® cant decrements at each deprivation period. Sherwood (1993, p. 157) noted in a review: ª Generally the results support a ® nding of impaired psychom otor function among smokers after three or more hours of tobacco abstinence.º Withdrawal effects have therefore been em pirically dem onstrated following 2 or 3 hours without nicotine.…”

“…The arousal levels of all subgroups after-sm oking were very sim ilar. Thus the effects of smoking upon arousal seem to re¯ect largely a process of mood norm alization, with deprived smokers reporting low arousal, and non-deprived smokers displaying similar arousal to non-smokers (Parrott et al, 1996;Jones & Parrott, 1997). This m ood normalization is also consistent with the wording of some of the questions on stimulant smoking: ª I smoke in order to keep myself from slowing downº (Ikard et al, 1969); ª Smoking keeps me going when I am tiredº (Russell et al, 1974).…”

Nicotine Enhances Visuospatial Attention by Deactivating Areas of the Resting Brain Default Network

“…Subjective state was measured by computerized versions of two selfreport instruments while lying inside the MRI scanner (once just before and once just after the scan session). One instrument assessed subjective feelings in both smokers and control participants by a list of bidirectional visual analog scales shown to be sensitive to mood changes induced by tobacco deprivation (Parrott et al, 1996): tense/relaxed, nervous/calm, energetic/tired, alert/drowsy, contented/irritated, and satisfied/dissatisfied. Additional scales added to cover further nicotine-withdrawal symptoms were as follows: distracted/focused, depressed/happy, and satiated/ hungry.…”

Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Effects on Cognitive Function of Multiple Doses of GTS-21 in Healthy, Male Volunteers

“…The core tests on the system were initially developed to identify the cognitive effects of drugs acting on brain cholinergic systems, primarily nicotine and scopolamine (Wesnes and Warburton, 1984). The various tests in the system are highly sensitive to a variety of compounds that can enhance cognitive function, particularly those that influence the cholinergic system (van Harten et al, 1996;Parrott et al, 1996).…”

“…Firstly, the effects are consistent with the pharmacological actions of the compound; for example, nicotine has long been known to enhance vigilance (Wesnes and Warburton, 1984) and has also been shown to produce similar effects on the vigilance task used in this study (Parrott et al, 1996). Secondly, the effects detected also go beyond the simple effects of nicotine and physostigmine.…”