Dimensions of impulsive behavior in adolescent smokers and nonsmokers.

Robust associations have been identified between impulsive personality characteristics and cigarette smoking during adolescents, indicating that impulsive behavior may play an important role in the initiation of cigarette smoking. The present study extended this research by using laboratory behavioral assessments to explore relationships between three specific dimensions of impulsive behavior (impulsive decision-making, inattention, and disinhibition) and adolescent cigarette smoking. Participants were male and female adolescent smokers (n = 50) and nonsmokers (n = 50). Adolescent smokers were more impulsive on a measure of decision-making; however, there were significant smoking status by gender interaction effects for impulsive inattention and disinhibition. Male smokers were most impulsive on the measure of inattention, but male smokers were least impulsive on the measure of disinhibition. Correlations between biomarkers of smoking and impulsive inattention and disinhibition were found for females but not males. The current findings, coupled with previous findings (Reynolds et al., 2007), indicate there may be robust gender difference in associations between certain types of impulsive behavior and cigarette smoking during adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of Type A behavior pattern in smokers to carbon monoxide exposure and smoking topography.

Compared exposure to cigarette smoke in 42 graduate and undergraduate student smokers assessed for the Type A behavior pattern. After controlling for smoking rate and cigarette carbon monoxide yield, Type As' alveolar carbon monoxide (COa) levels were higher than Type Bs', and Jenkins Activity Survey scores were correlated with COa. To determine the source of this difference, smoking topography was measured in 10 Type As and 10 Type Bs. Results suggest that consummatory behaviors of Type As may help account for the Type A–coronary heart disease relationship for smokers. Due to increased smoke exposure, Type A smokers may also be at greater risk for cancer and lung disease. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validation of susceptibility as a predictor of which adolescents take up smoking in the United States.

Smoking onset has 4 levels, with a "susceptibility" level preceding early experimentation. This study assessed the predictive validity of smoking susceptibility in a longitidinal study of a nationally representative sample of 4,500 adolescents who at baseline reported never having puffed on a cigarette. At follow-up 4 yrs later, 40% of the sample had experimented with smoking, and 8% had established a smoking habit. Baseline susceptibility to smoking, defined as the absence of a firm decision not to smoke, was a stronger independent predictor of experimentation than the presence of smokers among either family or the best friend network. However, susceptibility to smoking was not as important as exposure to smokers in distinguishing adolescents who progressed to established smoking from those who remained experimenters at follow-up. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using the internet to assist smoking prevention and cessation in schools: A randomized, controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a classroom-based, Web-assisted tobacco intervention addressing smoking prevention and cessation with adolescents. Design: A two-group randomized control trial with 1,402 male and female students in grades 9 through 11 from 14 secondary schools in Toronto, Canada. Participants were randomly assigned to a tailored Web-assisted tobacco intervention or an interactive control condition task conducted during a single classroom session with e-mail follow-up. The cornerstone of the intervention was a five-stage interactive Web site called the Smoking Zine (http://www.smokingzine.org) integrated into a program that included a paper-based journal, a small group form of motivational interviewing, and tailored e-mails. Main Outcome Measure: Resistance to smoking, behavioral intentions to smoke, and cigarette use were assessed at baseline, postintervention, and three- and six-month follow-up. Multilevel logistic growth modeling was used to assess the effect of the intervention on change over time. Results: The integrated Smoking Zine program helped smokers significantly reduce the likelihood of having high intentions to smoke and increased their likelihood of high resistance to continued cigarette use at 6 months. The intervention also significantly reduced the likelihood of heavy cigarette use adoption by nonsmokers during the study period. Conclusion: The Smoking Zine intervention provided cessation motivation for smokers most resistant to quitting at baseline and prevented nonsmoking adolescents from becoming heavy smokers at 6 months. By providing an accessible and attractive method of engaging young people in smoking prevention and cessation, this interactive and integrated program provides a novel vehicle for school- and population-level health promotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of tobacco smoking and abstinence on middle latency auditory evoked potentials

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of tobacco cigarette smoking and overnight abstinence on middle latency auditory evoked potentials among smokers and nonsmokers. METHODS: Groups of 9 to 10 adult male and female nonsmokers and smokers participated in the study. Each person volunteered for two laboratory sessions conducted in the early afternoon on 2 separate days. Smokers abstained from tobacco products 6 to 15 hours before the abstinent session and maintained their usual smoking behavior before the smoking session. The nonsmokers had a similar laboratory experience but sham smoked by means of inhaling air. Middle latency auditory evoked potentials were recorded from Cz to both ears as reference. RESULT: The latencies of the Na and Pa potentials during the smoking session were significantly (p < 0.01) shorter than those in abstinent smokers and nonsmokers. After smoking, peak-to-trough amplitudes for the V-Na, Na-Pa, and Pa-Nb potentials were larger than those after abstinence and significantly larger than those among nonsmokers. CONCLUSIONS: The shorter latencies of the middle latency brain wave components in the smoking session suggest faster processing of sensory information after cigarette smoking. Larger Pa amplitudes after cigarette smoking suggest a higher arousal level than that among partially abstinent smokers and nonsmokers.     

The acute effects of nicotine on positive and negative affect in adolescent smokers.

Although adolescent cigarette smoking remains a critical public health concern, little is known about the reinforcing mechanisms governing smoking in this vulnerable population. To assess predictions derived from both positive and negative reinforcement models of drug use, the authors measured the acute effects of nicotine, as administered via tobacco cigarettes, on both positive and negative affect in a group of 15- to 18-year-old smokers. A matched group of nonsmokers served as a comparison group. Findings revealed that whereas adolescents who smoked a cigarette experienced reductions in both positive and negative affect, the observed reductions in negative affect were moderated by nicotine content of the cigarette (high yield vs. denicotinized), level of nicotine dependence, level of baseline craving, and smoking expectancies pertinent to negative affect regulation. Nonsmokers experienced no change in affect over the 10-min assessment period, and no interaction effects were observed for positive affect. Overall, the findings conform to a negative reinforcement model of nicotine effects and strongly suggest that, even among young light smokers, nicotine dependence and resultant withdrawal symptomatology may serve as motivating factors governing smoking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of dietary protein and environmental temperature on growth performance and water consumption of male broiler chickens

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether smokers outside buildings with work-place smoking bans smoke "harder" than those smoking in social settings. An unobtrusive random observational study of smokers followed by structured interview was used, with 143 smokers taking smoking breaks outside their office buildings and 113 smokers in social settings. The main outcome measurements were number of puffs per cigarette and cigarette smoking duration. The mean number of puffs per cigarette for the office building group was 18.7% greater than that for the social settings group (10.7 +/- 3.2 vs. 8.7 +/- 2.7, t = 5.58, df = 253, p < 0.001); 74.8% of smokers outside offices took more than the mean number of puffs for the group compared to 42.5% of smokers in social settings (chi 2 df 1 = 26.31, p < 0.0001). Mean cigarette smoking duration was 30.4% shorter for the work-place group than the social settings group (3.9 +/- 1.2 minutes vs. 5.6 +/- 2.6 minutes). Of smokers outside offices, 55.2% had a cigarette smoking duration between 3 and 4.59 minutes, while 53.1% of smokers in social settings took > or = 5 minutes to smoke the observed cigarette (chi 2 df 2 = 31.55, p < 0.0001). Smokers who scored at the 75th percentile on the Fagerstrom Tolerance Scale took a mean 9.5 +/- 2.6 puffs per cigarette compared to 9.3 +/- 2.7 puffs by those who scored in the 25th percentile on the scale (t = 0.34, df = 145, p = 0.73). Regardless of degree of nicotine dependency, smokers leaving work-stations to smoke outside buildings smoked their cigarettes nearly 19% "harder" than cigarettes smoked in social settings. The individual and public health benefits of reduced smoking frequency engendered by work-place smoking bans may be lessened by policies which allow smokers to take smoking breaks.     

Transplacentally induced neuronal migration disorders: an animal model for the study of the epilepsies

OBJECTIVES: This investigation examined whether, despite the Tobacco Institute's Voluntary Cigarette Advertising and Promotion Code, current cigarette print advertising communicates culturally positive messages to youth about smoking. METHODS: Nine hundred thirteen students in grades 6-8 (ages 10-15) were shown a sample of four contemporary cigarette print ads (Camel, Marlboro, Newport, and Virginia Slims) and completed structured written assessments designed to capture their perceptions of each ad. RESULTS: Across the four ads, between 37% and 84% of the students reported that the ads communicated to them that smoking will make people popular, cool, successful in life, sexy, attractive, and healthy. Sizeable percentages of students reported that the ads show people using the product in an "exaggerated" way, and that what people in the ads are doing requires "exercise and physical energy." The median estimated age of the models in the ads was under age 25 for four out of the six models. CONCLUSIONS: As perceived by adolescents, current cigarette print advertising violates basic tenets of the Voluntary Code, thus bringing into question the tobacco industry's ability to self-regulate image advertising. These findings suggest that the FDA ruling to prohibit image advertising for tobacco in publications with significant youth readership deserves serious consideration.     

Smoking behavior and smoking history of tobacco chippers.

Nicotine produces dependence in almost all cigarette smokers. 65 chippers (anomalous smokers who smoke regularly but at very low levels [1–5 cigarettes/day]) were compared with 72 matched regular smokers (20–40 cigarettes/day). Despite having smoked an average of 46,000 cigarettes in 19 yrs of smoking, chippers demonstrated little sign of nicotine dependence. They reported frequent casual abstinence from smoking without withdrawal symptoms, smoked their 1st cigarette of the day hours after waking, and scored low on a modified Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire, a measure of tobacco dependence. Although most chippers had never smoked heavily, a small subgroup of chippers reported previous extended periods of heavy smoking, which suggests that some people may be able to overcome dependence while continuing to smoke. These "converted chippers" could not be distinguished from "native chippers" on the basis of their current smoking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The requisite internationalization of the campaign against smoking

One smoker out of two dies from smoking. Fifty five percent of the French population smoke at age 18. To decrease the tobacco consumption is thus a paramount public health objective. Following WHO and "Europe Against Cancer", a comprehensive program against smoking should ban advertising, increase prices, protect non-smokers, educate children, promote non-smoking behaviors and help smokers who want to stop. The measures taken in France, following the law of January 10th, 1991, made possible a 11.1% decrease of tobacco consumption and a 14.5% decrease of cigarette consumption. If France is exemplary for the ban of tobacco advertising, the means devoted to education and information are poor, the weakest in Europe. So, it is still possible to speed up the decrease of tobacco consumption in France so that the estimate of 165,000 deaths related to tobacco consumption in 2025 will not occur. This success has to be interpreted within a European and Worldwide context. The tobacco industry is responsible for denying the danger of tobacco, the addictive effect and nicotine and for targeting children and adolescents. Faced to the forecast of 100 million deaths within twenty years, only an international solution can be of the right size. WHO should be given this responsibility.     

Occupation and smoking in college graduates.

The results of a study of 895 members of the Harvard Class of 1946, 13 years after graduation, with respect to the association of occupation and smoking behavior, indicate statistically significant differentiations between smokers and nonsmokers; between cigarette, cigar, and pipe smokers; and in accordance with degree or rate of cigarette smoking. The significance of these findings appears to relate to the influence of personality and constitution on smoking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Smoking and nicotine addiction: a pediatric epidemic with sequelae in adulthood

Pediatric addiction to nicotine from cigarette smoking is a major public health problem, extracting a tremendous societal toll in terms of human suffering, a loss of future productivity, and the consumption of scarce health care resources. Teenagers smoke 1.1 billion packs of cigarettes yearly and will account for more than $200 billion in future health care costs. Recent behavioral studies confirm nicotine's ability to induce in adolescents both the tolerance and abstinence phenomena typical of other addicting substances. A range of adverse health effects, first detectable in adolescent cigarette smokers, extend into adulthood. Through the effects of environmental smoke or smoking during pregnancy, adolescent smokers affect not only their own health, but that of friends, family members, and even their own fetuses and children. Additional research into effective prevention and smoking cessation programs is urgently needed to forestall the ravaging of yet another generation by this preventable and deadly habit.     

Influence of acute smoking exposure on the subsequent reinforcing value of smoking.

The reinforcing value of smoking (i.e., the degree to which a smoker will work to obtain smoking) after varying the magnitude of prior smoke exposure in smokers not trying to quit was examined. Eight men and 8 women participated in 5 sessions involving manipulation of prior exposure to smoking: 0, 2, 6, or 12 puffs after overnight smoking abstinence or ad-lib smoking before the session. After exposure, participants engaged in a computer task involving concurrent schedules of reinforcement for smoke puffs (16% all trials) versus money (4–64%). Only the greatest amount of prior exposure (ad lib) produced a significant reduction in subsequent responding for smoke puffs. No exposure condition significantly increased responding above that for 0 puffs, indicating no priming effect. By contrast, self-report measures of desire to smoke and amount of money participants would pay for a cigarette declined sharply with greater prior exposure. These measures were correlated only weakly with smoke-reinforced responding on the behavioral task, suggesting that subjective versus behavioral measures assess different dimensions of smoking's reward value. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passive cigarette smoking and reduced HDL cholesterol levels in children with high-risk lipid profiles

BACKGROUND: HDL cholesterol levels are known to be lower in smokers than in nonsmokers. Previous studies have demonstrated an association of decreased HDL cholesterol with passive smoking in children but have not adjusted for potential confounding factors. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a cross-sectional, pilot-scale study, we examined the relationship of HDL cholesterol levels to passive smoking in children and adolescents referred to a tertiary hyperlipidemia clinic. Eligibility criteria included (1) first visit to a lipid clinic, (2) LDL cholesterol >95th percentile for age or HDL cholesterol <5th percentile, (3) age between 2 and 18 years, and (4) absence of secondary causes of hyperlipidemia. Sociodemographic information, diet record, medical history, and fasting lipid profiles were obtained. Of 109 eligible patients, 103 (94%) were studied. Twenty-seven percent came from households with cigarette smokers. HDL cholesterol levels were 38.7+/-1.2 mg/dL (mean+/-SEM) in passive smokers versus 43.6+/-1.2 mg/dL in children without smoke exposure (P=.005). Smoking exposure was not significantly associated with other lipid values. The effect of smoking on HDL cholesterol was minimally affected by potential confounders. In multivariate regression adjusting for body mass index, age, sex, exercise, and dietary fat intake, passive smoking remained a significant risk factor for decreased HDL cholesterol (P=.012). CONCLUSIONS: Mean HDL cholesterol levels are lower in dyslipidemic children from households with smokers than in those without household smoke exposure. Passive smoking may worsen the risk profile for later atherosclerosis among high-risk young persons.     

Family history of smoking and young adult smoking behavior.

Compared the smoking behavior and smoking-related beliefs of 816 young adult smokers who did and did not have a family history of cigarette smoking (FHS). Those with an FHS smoked more cigarettes in a typical day, smoked for more years, perceived themselves as more addicted to cigarettes, had more positive beliefs about the psychological consequences of smoking, and reported stronger pleasurable relaxation motives and stimulation motives for smoking compared with their peers who had no FHS. Thus, smokers with an FHS were more committed smokers and viewed smoking as having more positive psychological benefit than did their peers without an FHS. Such individual differences may be mediated through both social–environmental and genetically influenced mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of an objective measure on self-reports of behavior.

1,563 8th graders and their mothers completed self-report measures of cigarette smoking, and carbon monoxide levels in alveolar air were taken as an objective measure of smoking behavior. Adolescents who had smoked recently (according to their CO level) reported significantly greater amounts of smoking if they were informed about the biochemical measure before completing the questionnaire. Self-reports by adolescents who had not smoked recently (according to CO levels) and self-reports by mothers were not influenced by awareness of the objective measure. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In vitro activities of sulopenem, a new parenteral penem, against anaerobes

The purpose of this study was to examine college students' smoking behavior as well as their current smoking status and its effects on perceived levels of stress and coping styles. Students from four universities completed the Perceived Stress Scale, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations and a smoking questionnaire. Of the 1330 students who participated in the study, 19 percent were current smokers. On the Perceived Stress Scale, current smokers' mean score was significantly higher than that of the students who had never smoked. In addition, the current smokers' mean score for Emotion-oriented Coping was significantly higher than that of the students who had never smoked or formerly smoked. The former smokers' mean score on Avoidance-oriented Coping was significantly lower than the never and the current smokers. Ten percent of the students smoked their first cigarette after high school, while 11 percent started to smoke on a daily basis after high school. Based on the findings, programs that focus on smoking prevention and cessation for college students are recommended.     

Tobacco, youth, and sports

Cigarette smoking constitutes the single largest threat to the health and longevity of American youth. Each year, almost 400,000 people die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. Moreover, 90% of adult smokers began using tobacco before their eighteenth birthday, and each day 3,000 children and adolescents begin smoking. Smokeless tobacco use is less prevalent than cigarette smoking but has similar deleterious health effects and is often also glamorized by sports figures. This article examines the relationship between tobacco and sports and offers specific steps that physicians (specifically orthopedic surgeons and sports medicine physicians, who interact with athletes at sporting events and in schools as well as at the clinic) can take to help prevent or minimize tobacco use. Although sports have been used by the tobacco industry to promote tobacco products to young people, the authors suggest new ways to prevent its success.     

The effects of alcohol on cigarette craving in heavy smokers and tobacco chippers.

The authors examined the effects of alcohol consumption on cigarette craving in heavy smokers and tobacco chippers (n = 138) who were instructed not to smoke for 12 hr. Participants were exposed to both smoking cues (a lit cigarette) and control cues. Half received a moderate dose of alcohol, adjusted for gender, and half received a placebo. Results indicated that alcohol consumption produced an increase in urge-to-smoke ratings before smoking cue exposure. Moreover, during cue exposure, alcohol consumption produced a sharper increase in urge ratings than did the placebo. In addition, during smoking cue exposure, alcohol increased the likelihood of displaying facial expressions associated with positive affect. These findings suggest that alcohol consumption influences both the magnitude and the emotional valence of cigarette cravings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)