Nicotine patches improve mood and response speed in a lexical decision task

The effects of smoking a cigarette or wearing a transdermal nicotine patch on mood and lexical decision-making were tested in eight smokers. Each part icipant was tested after 4 hours of smoking abstinence, under 4 conditions: placebo (very low nicotine) cigarette, nicotine cigarette, placebo patch, and nicotine patch. Relative to placebo, wearing the nicotine patch reduced Profile of Mood States (POMS) Total Mood Disturbance and Fatigue/Inertia s cores, while increasing the speed of some types of lexical decisions. Smoki ng a nicotine cigarette did not affect reaction times, but unexpectedly dec reased the accuracy of Word/Nonword lexical decisions. Thus, transdermal ni cotine may improve mood and facilitate longterm memory search and/or attent ional processes in nicotine-deprived smokers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd .