Individuals who smoke cigarettes are more likely to drink alcohol and, conversely, those who drink tend to smoke. Moreover, alcohol and tobacco are frequently used at the same time. The relationship between these drugs, however, is not presently well understood. Given the synergistic health risks posed by the joint use of these substances, research on tobacco-alcohol interactions is urgently needed as it can inform prevention, treatment, and policy at multiple levels. There is reason to believe that both of these drugs are frequently used as a means of coping with stress. Moreover, recent work examining the parameters of alcohol/stress and tobacco/stress interactions has implicated the role of cognitive processes. One line of research suggests that both drugs' anxiolytic effects are attentionally mediated. Specifically, both smoking's and drinking's calming effects may depend on the presence of benign distraction: Each drug appears to narrow the focus of attention (through a reduction in cue utilization), thereby reducing anxiety by facilitating distraction from stressful cognitions. A different cognitive perspective posits that people use tobacco when they drink in order to counteract alcohol's depressant effects with nicotine's stimulant effects, thereby compensating for alcohol-related performance decrements. Both of these cognitively based theories provide excellent conceptual frameworks for assessing alcohol/tobacco interactions. Alcohol and tobacco may be used concurrently (1) for their additive, attentionally mediated effects on stress reduction, and/or (2) because nicotine's enhancement of attentional processing capacity compensates for processing capacity reductions induced by alcohol. Working from this theoretical base, the overall objective of the proposed project is to assess the separate and combined effects of alcohol and nicotine both on emotional response in stressed participants and on attentional processing capacity. The primary hypothesis being tested is that two genuinely different cognitive mechanisms work simultaneously to account for the covariance in use of alcohol and tobacco. Results provided from this study should improve our understanding of the link between tobacco and alcohol use.
| Kassel, J D; Unrod, M (2000) Smoking, anxiety, and attention: support for the role of nicotine in attentionally mediated anxiolysis. J Abnorm Psychol 109:161-6 |
| Kassel, J D; Jackson, S I; Unrod, M (2000) Generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation and problem drinking among college students. J Stud Alcohol 61:332-40 |
