Subjective, physiological, and cognitive responses to intravenous nicotine: effects of sex and menstrual cycle phase - PubMed (original) (raw)

Subjective, physiological, and cognitive responses to intravenous nicotine: effects of sex and menstrual cycle phase

Elise E DeVito et al. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2014 May.

Abstract

Nicotine dependence is a serious public health concern. Optimal treatment of nicotine dependence will require greater understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of smoking behaviors. A growing literature indicates sex and menstrual phase differences in responses to nicotine. The aim of this study was to assess sex and menstrual phase influences on a broad range of measures of nicotine response including subjective drug effects, cognition, physiological responses, and symptoms of withdrawal, craving, and affect. Using a well-established intravenous nicotine paradigm and biochemical confirmation of overnight abstinence and menstrual cycle phase, analyses were performed to compare sex (age 18-50 years; 115 male and 45 female) and menstrual cycle phase (29 follicular and 16 luteal) effects. Females had diminished subjective drug effects of, but greater physiological responses to, nicotine administration. Luteal-phase females showed diminished subjective drug effects and better cognition relative to follicular-phase women. These findings offer candidate mechanisms through which the luteal phase, wherein progesterone is dominant relative to estradiol, may be protective against vulnerability to smoking.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Influence of sex and phase on subjective and physiological IV dose effects. *Significant (_p⩽_0.05) effect of sex or phase; †significant (_p⩽_0.05) sex-by-dose or phase-by-dose interaction.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Influence of menstrual cycle phase on affect, cognitive performance, and craving. *Significant (_p⩽_0.05) effect of phase; ∼trend (0.5<p<0.1) effect of phase-by-timepoint; ↓indicates that lower scores represent more optimal cognitive task performance.

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