ArticlesNicotine Discrimination in Men and Women
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Nicotine dosing and drug discrimination procedures
We have conducted a number of studies examining nicotine discrimination in men and women. To examine individual differences in the magnitude of drug response, it is essential that the drug dose be controlled (9). However, controlling the nicotine dose is difficult when administered by its usual method, tobacco smoking, because of a wide variability in puffing behavior (23). There are also several thousand other compounds in tobacco smoke, so the independent stimulus effects of nicotine as
Sex differences in nicotine discrimination
In several studies of nicotine discrimination, we have observed differential sensitivity of discrimination responding across generalization doses between men and women. In an early study not involving formal drug discrimination training, we gave male and female smokers a different dose of nicotine by nasal spray (0, 5, 10, or 20 μg/kg, in counterbalanced order) on 4 separate days [see (9)]. They were asked to place a check mark next to “nicotine” or “no nicotine” on a form, depending on whether
Nonnicotine effects of smoking
Nevertheless, these results lead to an obvious question: if nicotine is less reinforcing in women, then why is the prevalence of smoking in the U.S. currently about the same for women and men? Because women smoke about as much as men, they must find something else about smoking, besides nicotine, more rewarding than do men. Although nicotine is the primary constituent of tobacco that reinforces smoking behavior, there is evidence that other, sensory, aspects of smoking may also be reinforcing,
Other research consistent with a sex difference in nicotine discrimination
Research from a different field of study, psychophysiology, is also relevant to the discussion of sex differences in nicotine discrimination, and appears to be consistent with our observations (25). There has been significant interest within this field in identifying individual differences in accuracy of perception of physiological changes (which may produce interoceptive stimuli). It is believed that those who are less able to perceive adverse physiological changes (e.g., elevated heart rate),
Conclusions
Several studies have shown that women smokers are less sensitive than men smokers to nicotine's discriminative stimulus effects. Reduced sensitivity to these effects may explain why women appear to find nicotine per se less reinforcing (16), nicotine intake a less reinforcing consequence of tobacco smoking (18), and nicotine replacement less efficacious in reducing withdrawal after cessation (4), relative to men.
Because nicotine replacement is the most common method of treatment for smoking
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by NIDA Grant DA08578. The author thanks Carolyn Fonte, James Grobe, Mark Sanders, Wendy White, and Jacquelyn Ashcom for their helpful assistance.
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