PACED SMOKING IN THE LABORATORY AND IN THE NATURAL SMOKING SETTING - DIFFERENTIAL SITUATION SPECIFIC EFFECTS IN LIGHT AND HEAVY SMOKERS

The present study examined the situation-specific effects of smoking u sing a paced regimen of smoking to control the smoke intake. The subje cts were first required to sham smoke and then actually smoke one of t heir cigarettes ill two different test contexts: 1) in the laboratory where they had never previously smoked and 2) at home, alone in a quie t room where they regularly smoke. Light (< 10 cigarettes/day) and hea vy smokers (> 15 cigarettes/day) were studied to test for a possible e ffect of the paced regimen itself. In the light smokers, smoking produ ced a larger increase in heart rate (HR) in the laboratory than in the natural smoking environment; however, in the heavy smokers the smokin g had a larger effect in the normal smoking environment than in the la boratory. There were no significant group or test situation difference s for baseline HR, skin conductance and finger temperature. The groups also did not differ in the intensity of drawing on the cigarette or i nhaling, as indicated by a puff sensor and a respiratory belt, respect ively. It was concluded that differences between the effects of a ciga rette in a laboratory setting and in a natural smoking environment may reflect pharmacodynamic effects of smoking that are modified by the s ubjects' prior experience with smoking. The data are discussed with re gard to conditioned tolerance to the effect of smoking.