Abstract
Rationale
One third of US smokers are intermittent smokers (ITS) who do not smoke daily. Unlike daily smokers (DS), whose smoking is negatively reinforced by withdrawal relief, ITS may be motivated by immediate positive reinforcement. In contrast, incentive salience theory posits hypothesis that “liking” of drug effects fades in established users, such as DS.
Objective
This study aims to compare ITS’ and DS’ hedonic responses to smoking.
Methods
Participants were 109 ITS (smoking 4–27 days/month) and 52 DS (smoking daily 5–25 cigarettes/day), aged ≥21, smoking ≥3 years, and not quitting smoking. For 3 weeks, participants engaged in ecological momentary assessment, carrying an electronic diary that asked them to rate their most recent smoking experience on 0–100 visual analog scales (satisfaction, enjoyment [averaged as “pleasure”], feeling sick, feeling a “rush,” enjoying upper respiratory sensations, and immediate craving relief). Hierarchical random effect regression analyzed 4476 ratings.
Results
ITS found smoking pleasurable (mean = 69.7 ± 1.7 [SE]) but significantly less so than DS did (77.6 ± 2.3; p < 0.006). ITS also reported more aversive response (ITS 18.2 ± 1.4, DS 11.6 ± 2.0; p < 0.007). Even though ITS are more likely to smoke at bars/restaurants, when drinking alcohol, or when others were present, they did not report more pleasure in these settings (compared to DS). More extensive smoking experience was unrelated to craving or smoking effects among DS, but predicted greater craving, greater pleasure, and less aversion among ITS.
Conclusions
The findings were largely inconsistent with incentive-salience models of drug use.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Stuart Ferguson, Hilary Tindle, Thomas Kirchner, and Deborah Scharf for their help with this study and for the input on study design; to Sarah Scholl for the project management; to Anna Tsivina, Joe Stafura, Rachelle Gish, and Aileen Butera for their work conducting research sessions; and to Chantele Mitchell-Miland for the data management and preparation.
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Dr. Shiffman consults to eRT, which provides electronic diary services for clinical research. In the past 3 years, Shiffman has provided services for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare on stop-smoking medications, for NJOY, Inc., on electronic nicotine delivery systems, and since February 2015, for Reynolds American, Inc. (RAI), on stop-smoking medications and non-combusted harm-minimization tobacco/nicotine products.
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This work was supported by grant R01-DA020742 (PI: Shiffman) from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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Shiffman, S., Terhorst, L. Intermittent and daily smokers’ subjective responses to smoking. Psychopharmacology 234, 2911–2917 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4682-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4682-x