PERSONALITY RELATED EFFECTS OF NICOTINE, MODE OF APPLICATION, AND EXPECTANCIES ON PERFORMANCE, EMOTIONAL STATES, AND DESIRE FOR SMOKING

Three separate factors relevant to nicotine effects have been investig ated in this experiment in combination: the experimentally induced exp ectation about receiving a sham or a nicotine cigarette, the mode of a pplication of nicotine by a tablet, by a cigarette or not at all, whil e the belief of receiving the nicotine via smoking was held constant i n each condition (by nicotine or sham smoking), and the personality fa ctors of extraversion or neuroticism, respectively. Ninety-six healthy female student smokers were tested in a 2 x 3 x 2 factorial group com parison design with respect to critical flicker fusion and reaction ti me performance as well as to self-ratings on emotional and cortical ar ousal and ratings on desire for further cigarettes (satisfaction from smoking a single cigarette containing either 0.8 mg nicotine or a sham cigarette). In each case, a tablet containing either nicotine or plac ebo was administered together with the cigarette. The results showed t hat performance is sensitive to interaction effects of instruction and mode of application. The instruction of sham or nicotine assignment w hen applied with a congruent treatment (sham with a sham cigarette, or nicotine with a nicotine cigarette) both increased performance, while groups with discordant information showed worse performance. The admi nistration of nicotine by tablets or by smoking differs considerably, nicotine cigarettes causing a stronger increase in emotional arousal, tablets rather a decrease or no effect. while the true placebo conditi on increases arousal due to deprivation effects. This leads to an enha ncement of the nicotine effect with real smoking and to reactive incre ase of effort when sham smoking. The instruct-ion affects alertness, t he nicotine illusion leading to a lower reduction in subjective report s of alertness and concentration than that observed with the sham inst ruction. Neurotic subjects become more anxious and tense with nicotine cigarettes than stable subjects. This effect is less pronounced or ev en reversed with tablets. No interactions with instructions are observ ed with neuroticism. Extraverts tend to show a decrease in performance but an increase in alertness with the instruction of receiving nicoti ne as opposed to the sham expectation, whereas introverts behave the o pposite way. Subjective ratings on arousal seem to follow the law of t ransmarginal inhibition, with extraverts being pushed from low arousal to high and introverts vice versa by the mere expectation.