Effects of nicotine administered via a transdermal delivery system on vigilance: a repeated measure study

Fifteen 18- to 25-year-old male smokers were tested in a within-subjects de sign to determine the influence of a transdermal patch of 21 mg nicotine on vigilance. Subjects were tested on the RVIP test (Rapid Visual Information Processing test) 1.30, 3.00 and 6.30 h after patch application, to verify the involvement of the dose of nicotine on the performance. This study conf irms and extends the increasing effects of nicotine on vigilance previously found with orally and transdermally given nicotine. Moreover, it showed th at such performance was independent of the time of nicotine absorption (1.3 0, 3.00 and 6.30 h after patch application), which suggests that a relative ly low dose of nicotine suffices to activate vigilance processing. Regardin g motor performance, no convincing effect of nicotine was observed on react ion time.