Tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the world, yet despite public health efforts to dissuade youth from experimenting with tobacco, about 4.5 million adolescents in the U.S. are cigarette smokers. Every day more than 4,000 young people under 18 years try smoking while another 1,000 who have already experimented with cigarettes become regular smokers. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of smoking versus neutral cues in adolescents who smoke on 1) craving, mood, and autonomic responsivity and 2) the relative reinforcing efficacy of tobacco cigarettes. We will test 25 adolescent smokers. During cue trials, primary measures include craving (TCQ-SF, VAS), mood (mood form, VAS), and autonomic (heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance) responsivity. During self-administration trials, primary measures include breakpoint (final ratio completed), total number of responses, and number of cigarette puffs earned and taken. Secondary measures include baseline smoking history, mood, tobacco craving, smoking expectancies, nicotine dependence, and urinary cotinine and 3-hydroxycotinine. During the past year, we have initiated the study and completed testing of two subjects. Because study enrollment is ongoing, we have no findings to report at this time.
| Collins, Charles C; Epstein, David H; Parzynski, Craig S et al. (2010) Puffing behavior during the smoking of a single cigarette in tobacco-dependent adolescents. Nicotine Tob Res 12:164-7 |
