Tobacco Smoking, Nicotine and Negative Affect Relief

描述（由申请人提供）：吸烟的一个关键强化效应被认为是对负面影响（焦虑、悲伤、易怒等）的急性缓解。吸烟可以明显缓解戒烟带来的负面影响（即戒断），而戒烟后的负面影响则增加了复吸的风险。然而，目前尚不清楚，吸烟是否能从戒烟以外的“来源”（如吸烟者在自然环境中通常经历的环境压力源）强烈地缓解负面影响。由于临床研究固有的局限性，这个问题最好通过控制良好的实验室研究来解决。我们需要的是一项包含多个负面影响来源的实验室研究，以便在相同的受试者样本中，使用相同的负面影响测量方法，在相同的实验程序下，对不同来源的结果进行比较。这是当前提案的重要和新颖的目标：检查消极影响和吸烟之间的关系在多大程度上取决于消极影响的来源。我们将采用四种不同的方法来短暂地诱导消极情绪。这些程序的要求在关键方面有所不同（例如，积极应对与不积极应对），这将帮助我们确定吸烟与负面影响相关的条件。此外，200名吸烟受试者将被随机分配到吸烟和/或尼古丁暴露程度不同的三组（即受试者之间因素）中的一组：抽含尼古丁的香烟，抽去尼古丁的香烟，或者根本不吸烟。这些群体之间的比较将确定是尼古丁本身还是吸烟行为本身，不含尼古丁（暗示条件效应），导致了吸烟和负面影响之间的联系。影响将通过多个反应领域进行评估：自我报告、心理生理和行为。主要的具体目的是检验：1)急性吸烟是否作为一个源函数缓解消极情绪，2)消极情绪诱导是否作为一个源函数增加吸烟行为，以及3)消极情绪缓解与随后的吸烟行为之间的关系。在第二个目标中，我们将：4)探讨这些影响的个体差异。如果吸烟减轻了所有四种来源的负面影响，这将加强人们普遍持有但很少证明的观点，即吸烟实际上在几乎所有情况下都能显著减轻负面影响。然而，如果吸烟有选择性地缓解负面情绪，这一发现将表明，吸烟缓解负面情绪的能力仅限于某些情况。最后，如果情绪缓解与吸烟行为的结果不一致（即，目标3），那么在消极情绪期间吸烟增加的传统负强化解释将需要重新考虑，以保证其他解释。总之，这项研究将有助于解决为什么吸烟会加剧这一根本问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A critical reinforcing effect of cigarette smoking is believed to be acute relief of negative affect (anxiety, sadness, irritability, etc.). Smoking clearly relieves negative affect caused by smoking abstinence (i.e. withdrawal), and negative affect after quitting smoking increases the risk of relapse. However, it is not clear that smoking acutely relieves negative affect from "sources" other than abstinence, such as environmental stressors, which smokers commonly experience in the natural environment. Due to limitations inherent in clinical research, this question may best be addressed with well-controlled laboratory research. What is needed is a lab study that includes more than one source of negative affect so that results across different sources can be compared within the same subject sample, using the same measures of negative affect, and under the same experimental procedures. This is the important and novel objective of the current proposal: to examine the degree to which the relationship between negative affect and smoking depends on the source of that negative affect. We will employ four different procedures to briefly induce negative mood. Demands of these procedures vary in key ways (e.g. active coping vs. no active coping) and will help us determine the conditions under which smoking is associated with negative affect. In addition, the 200 smoking subjects will be randomly assigned to one of three groups that differ in smoking and/or nicotine exposure (i.e. between-subjects factor), those who: smoke a nicotine cigarette, smoke a denicotinized cigarette, or do not smoke at all. Comparisons among these groups will determine whether nicotine per se or smoking behavior alone, without nicotine (suggesting conditioned effects), is responsible for the associations between smoking and negative affect. Affect will be assessed via multiple response domains: self-report, psycho physiological, and behavioral. Primary specific aims are to examine: 1) whether acute tobacco smoking relieves negative affect as a function of source, 2) whether negative mood induction increases smoking behavior as a function of source, and 3) the association between negative affect relief and subsequent smoking behavior. In a secondary aim, we will: 4) explore individual differences in these effects. If smoking relieves negative affect from all four sources, this will strengthen the commonly held, but rarely demonstrated, notion that smoking does in fact acutely relieve negative affect, under virtually all conditions. However, if smoking relieves negative affect selectively, this finding will suggest that smoking's ability to relieve negative affect is limited to only certain conditions. Finally, if results for affect relief versus smoking behavior are inconsistent (i.e., aim #3), the traditional negative reinforcement explanation for the increase in smoking during negative mood will need to be reconsidered, warranting other explanations. In sum, this research will help address the fundamental question of why cigarette smoking is reinforcing.