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A double-blind placebo controlled experimental study of nicotine: I—effects on incentive motivation

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Abstract

Rationale

Brain reward pathways implicated in addiction appear to be less reactive in regular drug users; behavioural manifestations may include decreased sensitivity to natural reinforcers.

Objectives

This study aimed to replicate earlier findings of abstinence-associated incentive motivation deficits in smokers and to determine whether these can be reversed with nicotine in the form of lozenge.

Methods

One hundred forty-five smokers were each tested twice, once after receiving nicotine, and once after receiving placebo lozenge in counterbalanced order. Participants completed various tests of incentive motivational functioning: a measure of subjective enjoyment, the Snaith–Hamilton pleasure scale (SHAPS); a simple card sorting task, the card arranging reward responsivity objective test (CARROT) with and without financial incentive; the modified emotional Stroop test; a cue-reactivity task; and a novel reaction time task to explore effects of signals of reward, the incentive motivational enhancement of response speed task.

Results

Compared with performance during abstinence (placebo condition), nicotine was associated with: higher self-reported pleasure expectations on the SHAPS; enhanced responsiveness to financial reward on the CARROT in smokers who smoked 15 or more cigarettes a day; and greater interference from appetitive words on the Stroop task.

Conclusions

These results are generally consistent with contemporary neurobiological theories of addiction and suggest that short-term smoking abstinence is associated with impaired reward motivation which can be reversed with nicotine.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (grant code 3527427). Thanks are due to Glaxo Smith Kline for providing the nicotine and placebo lozenges.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of East London, Romford Road, Stratford, London, E15 4LZ, UK

    Lynne Dawkins

  2. Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, Lewisham Way, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK

    Jane H. Powell & Alan Pickering

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 2-16 Torrington Place, WC1E 6BT, London, UK

    Robert West

  4. Institute of Psychiatry, P.O. Box 39, De Crespigny Park, SE5 8AF, London, UK

    John Powell

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  1. Lynne Dawkins
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  2. Jane H. Powell
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  3. Robert West
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  4. John Powell
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  5. Alan Pickering
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lynne Dawkins.

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Dawkins, L., Powell, J.H., West, R. et al. A double-blind placebo controlled experimental study of nicotine: I—effects on incentive motivation. Psychopharmacology 189, 355–367 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0588-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0588-8

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