Relationships between sensation seeking and emotional symptomatology during smoking cessation with nicotine patch therapy

This study explored relationships between the sensation-seeking trait and t he development of emotional symptomatology during smoking cessation with ni cotine transdermal patches. Twenty-five subjects were evaluated before they stopped smoking, on Day 8, Day 30, Day 90, and Day 120. Initial motives fo r smoking and the sensation-seeking personality trait were tested as possib le predictors for the development of specific mood disturbances. Our subjec ts scored very high on sensation seeking, consistent with previous results on smokers. This may also be due to the well-known tendency of high sensati on-seekers to be willing to try new experiences. The sensation-seeking trai t did not predict the issue of cessation. However, it was related to emotio nal deficit (anhedonia, affective blunting), tiredness, and a lack of energ y, before and during smoking cessation. Two different interpretations of em otional deficit are proposed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.