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Effects of nicotine on social cognition, social competence and self-reported stress in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls

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European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

More than 80 % of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are nicotine-dependent. Self-medication of cognitive deficits and an increased vulnerability to stress are discussed as promoting factors for the development of nicotine dependence. However, the effects of nicotine on social cognition and subjective stress responses in schizophrenia are largely unexplored. A 2 × 2-factorial design (drug × group) was used to investigate the effects of nicotine versus placebo in smoking schizophrenia patients and healthy controls after 24 h of abstinence from smoking. Participants performed a facial affect recognition task and a semi-standardized role-play task, after which social competence and self-reported stress during social interaction were assessed. Data analysis revealed no significant group differences in the facial affect recognition task. During social interaction, healthy controls showed more non-verbal expressions and a lower subjective stress level than schizophrenia patients. There were no significant effects of nicotine in terms of an enhanced recognition of facial affect, more expressive behaviour or reduced subjective stress during social interaction. While schizophrenia patients unexpectedly recognized facial affect not significantly worse than healthy controls, the observed group differences in subjective stress and non-verbal expression during social interaction in the role-play situation are in line with previous findings. Contrary to expectations derived from the self-medication hypothesis, nicotine showed no significant effects on the dependent variables, perhaps because of the dosage used and the delay between the administration of nicotine and the performance of the role-play.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the German Research Association (DFG, grant no. WO 640/3-1) within the Priority Program 1226 ‘Nicotine: Molecular and physiological effects in the central nervous system’. The authors would like to thank our students Claudia Wach, Katharina Karakatsani and Abdelhadi Faraj for their support in conducting the study, in particular the role-play test. Additionally, we thank the Coordination Centre for Clinical Trials Düsseldorf, especially Marie-Therés Düsterhus for her support in particular in the recruitment of the healthy participants of the sample. We also thank Jacquie Klesing, ELS, for editing assistance with the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, LVR Klinikum Düsseldorf, Bergische Landstraße 2, 40629, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Katharina Drusch, Agnes Lowe, Katrin Fisahn, Jürgen Brinkmeyer, Francesco Musso & Wolfgang Wölwer

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Arian Mobascher

  3. Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine (INM-3), Helmholtz Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany

    Tracy Warbrick & John Shah

  4. Coordination Centre for Clinical Trials, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Christian Ohmann

  5. Cologne Center for Genomics (CCG), Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Georg Winterer

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  1. Katharina Drusch
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  2. Agnes Lowe
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Correspondence to Katharina Drusch.

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Drusch, K., Lowe, A., Fisahn, K. et al. Effects of nicotine on social cognition, social competence and self-reported stress in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 263, 519–527 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-012-0377-9

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