Authors: Lynne Dawkins John Turner Eadaoin Crowe
Publish Date: 2013/01/24
Volume: 227, Issue: 3, Pages: 377-384
Abstract
It is well established that nicotine improves and deprivation impairs cognitive performance and mood in smokers Prospective memory PM remembering to execute a delayed intention at a given time point is underexplored in smokers Whilst a handful of studies have shown improved PM with nicotine the effects of nicotine delivered via the electronic cigarette ecigarette have not been investigatedTwenty smokers abstinent for 8–10 h each completed two experimental sessions under nicotine 18 mg and placebo 0 mg ecigarette conditions Participants completed a singleitem desiretosmoke scale and the Mood and Physical Symptoms Scale PM was measured using the Cambridge Prospective Memory TestCompared with placebo the nicotine ecigarette reduced the desire to smoke and tobacco withdrawal symptoms and improved timebased but not eventbased PM There was a moderate marginally significant negative correlation between PM performance during abstinence and nicotine dependenceThis is the first study to show that nicotine derived via ecigarette can improve PM in abstinent smokers suggesting efficient nicotine delivery The finding that the effect of nicotine was restricted to timebased rather than eventbased PM is consistent with the view that nicotine acts to improve performance on strategic effortful rather than automatic processing These findings add to the growing body of evidence that the ecigarette can replace some of the effects of nicotine derived from tobacco smoking thus highlighting its potential for smoking cessation
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