Comparative mood states and cognitive skills of cigarette smokers, deprived smokers and nonsmokers

Abstract

Regular cigarette smokers (n 15), overnight deprived smokers (n 15) and nonsmokers (n 20), were assessed on a battery of mood questionnaires and cognitive performance tasks, before and after a cigarette/rest period. At the initial session, deprived smokers reported signi®cantly greater feelings of stress, irritability, depression, poor concentration and low pleasure, than both nondeprived smokers and nonsmokers (all comparisons, p 5 0 . 01). After the rest/cigarette break, the mood states of all three groups became generally similar, although the previously deprived smokers still reported elevated depression. These ®ndings suggest that mood gains after smoking re¯ect the simple reversal of abstinence eects. On the cognitive tasks, there were no signi®cant dierences in letter cancellation performance between subgroups, either before or after smoking. With mental arithmetic, abstinent and nonabstinent smokers attempted more problems than nonsmokers, both before and after the rest/cigarette break. This is suggestive of faster cognitive processing in smokers, irrespective of their nicotine status. However, the cognitive performance data were untypical in various ways and need replication. #

Fear-Potentiated Startle to Threat, and Prepulse Inhibition Among Young Adult Nonsmokers, Abstinent Smokers, and Nonabstinent Smokers

“…This effect may either be attributable to cigarette withdrawal symptoms (Hughes et al 1994;Parrott and Garnham 1998), which increase sensitivity to stimuli with negative valence (Cinciripini et al 2006). Alternatively, if nicotine is used as an anxiolytic agent (Shiffman 1982), abstinence may uncover underlying anxiety in smokers during acute withdrawal.…”

Why does smoking so often produce dependence? A somewhat different view

“…9 11 12 My belief (and that of others before me8 9) that nicotine can cause true beneficial effects is based on three sets of data. First, nicotine often causes improvements in animals with no history of nicotine exposure, in never smokers, and in non-deprived smokers 8…”

Self-rated everyday and prospective memory abilities of cigarette smokers and non-smokers: a web-based study

“…There are numerous factors that need to be taken into account, with one of the most crucial being nicotine abstinence. When smokers are deprived of nicotine, they typically demonstrate mood and cognitive deficits, so that the apparently positive psychobiological effects of nicotine may often reflect the reversal of abstinence symptoms (Parrott and Garnham, 1998;Williams, 1980). Sakurai and Kanazawa (2002) investigated the effects of smoking either no, one or two cigarettes, on Buschke's selective reminding (memory) task, in non-deprived smokers.…”