Nicotine Acutely Inhibits Erectile Tumescence by Altering Heart Rate Variability

Abstract

Objective To examine potential mechanisms underlying nicotine’s effects on male sexual arousal by exploring the mediating role of heart rate variability (HRV). Methods The sample comprised 22 healthy, nicotine-naïve men (Mage = 20.91 years; SD = 2.43). Data were taken from a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial previously completed and published elsewhere. During each laboratory visit, time-domain parameters of HRV (standard deviation of normal-to-normal [NN] intervals [SDNN], square root of the mean squared difference of successive NN intervals [RMSSD], percent of NN intervals for which successive heartbeat intervals differed by at least 50 ms [pNN50]) were assessed, as well as objective (via penile plethysmography) and subjective indices of sexual arousal. Results Acute nicotine ingestion (compared to placebo) was associated with dysregulated sympathovagal balance, which in turn was related to relatively reduced erectile tumescence. HRV did not mediate relations between nicotine intake and self-reported indices of sexual arousal. Conclusions HRV mediated the association between nicotine ingestion and erectile capacity. Findings suggest that dysfunctional cardiac autonomic tone may be an underlying mechanism by which nicotine exerts its deleterious effects on erectile health.

Nicotine effects on exercise performance and physiological responses in nicotine‐naïve individuals: a systematic review

“…Studies that scored low lacked blinding and did not randomly allocate conditions (Heishman et al, 1993;Usuki et al, 1998). Studies that scored particularly highly included concealment of allocation and participant inclusion criteria (Mundal et al, 1995;Harte & Meston, 2008;Harte, 2014). High scoring studies also included tests to exclude recent exposure to nicotine and confirm absorption of the intervention.…”

Procedure to validate sexual stimuli: reliability and validity of a set of sexual stimuli in a sample of young colombian heterosexual males.

“…Studies are observed which evaluate different types of sex offenders, including child molesters (Marshall & Marshall, in press;Michaud & Proulx, 2009), rapists Looman and Marshall (2005), sexual sadists (Marshall & Yates, 2004;Proulx, Blais, & Beauregard, 2006) and exhibitionists Kolářský and Madlafousek (1983). Other studies have measured the effect of substance use on sexual response (George et al, 2006;Harte, 2014),distractions to sexual stimuli Anderson and Hamilton (2014), cognitive mechanisms linked to arousal Both, Laan, and Everaerd (2011) or implications of arousal in condom use Janssen et al (2014). All these aspects are relevant to sexual health, and it is important to have reliable and valid assessment methods, as this may impact theory testing, decisions regarding the effectiveness of a psychological treatment, experimental verification of the impact of one or more independent variables, etc.…”