Tobacco Smoking, Nicotine and Negative Affect Relief

描述（由申请人提供）：吸烟的一个关键强化作用被认为是负面影响（焦虑、悲伤、易怒等）的急性缓解。吸烟明显减轻了戒烟（即戒断）引起的负面影响，戒烟后的负面影响增加了复吸的风险。然而，目前尚不清楚吸烟是否能迅速缓解戒烟以外的“来源”的负面影响，例如吸烟者在自然环境中通常会经历的环境压力。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。我们需要的是一个实验室研究，包括一个以上的负面影响的来源，使不同来源的结果可以在相同的主题样本进行比较，使用相同的负面影响的措施，并在相同的实验程序。这是当前提案的重要和新颖的目标：检查负面影响和吸烟之间的关系在多大程度上取决于负面影响的来源。我们将采用四种不同的程序来简要地诱导消极情绪。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），并将帮助我们确定吸烟与负面影响相关的条件。此外，200例吸烟受试者将被随机分配至吸烟和/或尼古丁暴露不同（即受试者间因素）的三个组之一，即：吸烟尼古丁香烟、吸烟脱尼古丁香烟或完全不吸烟。这些组之间的比较将确定是否尼古丁本身或吸烟行为单独，没有尼古丁（暗示条件作用），是负责吸烟和负面影响之间的关联。情感将通过多个响应域进行评估：自我报告，心理生理和行为。主要的具体目标是检查：1）急性吸烟是否缓解了作为来源的函数的消极情绪，2）消极情绪诱导是否增加了作为来源的函数的吸烟行为，以及3）消极情绪缓解与随后的吸烟行为之间的关联。在第二个目标中，我们将：4）探索这些影响的个体差异。如果吸烟能缓解所有四种来源的负面影响，这将加强人们普遍持有但很少得到证实的观点，即吸烟实际上在几乎所有情况下都能缓解负面影响。然而，如果吸烟选择性地减轻负面影响，这一发现将表明吸烟减轻负面影响的能力仅限于某些条件。最后，如果影响缓解与吸烟行为的结果不一致（即，目标#3），传统的负强化解释增加吸烟在消极情绪将需要重新考虑，排除其他解释。总之，这项研究将有助于解决为什么吸烟会增强的根本问题。

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.