The Electronic Cigarette: Effects on Craving, Withdrawal Symptoms - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Electronic Cigarette: Effects on Craving, Withdrawal Symptoms and Memory Dawkins, L., Turner, J. & Soar, K. Recreational Drugs Research Team, UEL http://www.uel.ac.uk/psychology/research/drugs .htm

The E-cigarette: what is it? A battery- operated device which delivers nicotine via an inhaled vapour

Previous studies • Bullen et al. (2010) – Relative to 0mg, the16mg (Ruyan) e-cig reduced craving but not withdrawal symptoms over 60 minutes. – Mean tmax: 19.6 mins; mean Cmax: 1.3ng/mL • Eissenberg (2010) – Compared 2 brands of 16mg e-cigs to tobacco smoking – Only tobacco smoking sig raised blood nicotine levels – Both e-cigs ineffective at suppressing craving

Aim: To explore the effects of the electronic cigarette (‘White Super’;TECC) on nicotine withdrawal symptoms, craving and working memory

Methods: • Participants: 85 regular smokers abstinent for at least 1 hour • Randomly allocated to ‘nicotine’, ‘placebo’ or ‘just-hold’ (single-blind) • Rated craving and withdrawal symptoms before, 5 & 20 minutes after using the e-cig ‘ad-lib’ for 5 minutes • A subset (N = 60) completed a working memory task

Measures • Single item craving scale • Mood and Physical Symptoms Scale (MPSS) • Trigram Working Memory Task (Brown & Peterson) T RECALL N B Count backwards in threes 3 sec presentation

Results: demographics Nicotine Placebo Just hold Total N = 30 N = 28 N = 27 N = 85 Age 27.70 28.93 31.26 29.23 (8.51) (9.82) (8.76) (9.05) FTND 4.53 5.71 5.37 5.19 (2.24) (1.72) (2.31) (2.14) Gender M:F 14:16 15:13 13:14 42:43 Ethnicity 7:16:6:1 11:6:4:3 8:11:7:1 26:33:17:5 B:W:A:O B = Black; W = White; A = Asian; O = other/undisclosed

Results: craving # # * # indicates sig difference from baseline * indicates sig difference from just hold ^ indicates sig difference from placebo at each time point (p < 0.05)

Results: withdrawal symptoms # indicates sig difference from baseline * indicates sig difference from just hold ^ indicates sig difference from placebo at each time point (p < 0.05)

* indicates a significant difference Results: WM (p < 0.01) from parallel interval duration under nicotine * * *

Summary & Conclusions • The e-cigarette can reduce craving and (to a lesser extent) nicotine withdrawal symptoms • BUT the actual nicotine content may be more important for males than females • Nicotine e-cigarette can prevent the memory decrement that usually occurs with increasing delays/interference (needs replicating)

Acknowledgements • Tom Kent (undergraduate student) • Surrayyah Hasna (Undergraduate student) • Dawn Markham (Undergraduate student) • The Electronic Cigarette Company