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Empirical, Logical and Philosophical Arguments Against Cigarette Smoking as a Pharmacologically Compelled Act

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Abstract

The fundamental hypothesis of the disease model of nicotine addiction states that, following a regime of chronic smoking, further smoking becomes a pharmacologically compelled rather than a chosen act. Despite it’s public and professional popularity as an explanation for why people continue to smoke in spite of a deteriorating quality of life, the validity of this hypothesis has been critically undermined by the state of evidence in four domains: inconclusive empirical evidence of withdrawal severity as a potent predictor of quit outcome; methodological problems concerning the measurement of factors which maintain smoking; logical problems with the interpretation of factors which maintain smoking, in particular, failures to discriminate reflexive and mediated actions in explanations of why people smoke; and philosophical problems with conceptualisations of human action as determined rather than willed. In light of these problems, it is argued that evidence on the nature of nicotine addiction is not well explained by the disease model, but rather, posits smoking primarily as a decision-making process influenced peripherally by the pharmacologic effects of nicotine on the brain and body.

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Notes

  1. Distributional half-life indicates the time taken for nicotine to diffuse from the blood and brain to other body tissues, which indicates the time course of actions of nicotine on the central nervous system (CNS) after smoking a single cigarette.

  2. Terminal half-life indicates the time course of the decline of nicotine in the body and is useful for predicting the rate of accumulation of nicotine in the body with frequent cigarette smoking.

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  1. Centre for Applied Social Psychology, University of Strathclyde, 40 George Street, Glasgow, Scotland, G1 1QE

    Christopher Russell & John B. Davies

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Russell, C., Davies, J.B. Empirical, Logical and Philosophical Arguments Against Cigarette Smoking as a Pharmacologically Compelled Act. Curr Psychol 28, 147–168 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-009-9057-y

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