Nicotine discrimination in male and female smokers
- 1 December 1994
- journal article
- clinical trial
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Psychopharmacology
- Vol. 116 (4), 407-413
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02247470
Abstract
Discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine were evaluated in humans using formal behavioral drug discrimination procedures. Male and female smokers (n=9 each) were trained on day 1 to reliably discriminate 0 versus 12 µg/kg nicotine administered by measured-dose nasal spray. All subjects were able to reach criterion performance (at least 80% correct). Generalization of responding across nicotine doses of 0, 2, 4, 8, and 12 µg/kg (approximately 0–0.8 mg for typical subject) was then examined on day 2. Nicotine-appropriate responding was linearly related to dose, and subjects were able to distinguish the smallest dose (2 µg/kg) from placebo. Although there were no differences between males and females in behavioral discrimination, subjective effects were correlated with nicotine discrimination in females but not in males. These findings indicate that humans are able to discriminate among low doses of nicotine per se, that males and females may differ in the stimuli used to discriminate nicotine, and that drug discrimination procedures may be more sensitive than traditional subjective effects measures in distinguishing among low doses of nicotine.Keywords
This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
- Comparison of acute subjective and heart rate effects of nicotine intake via tobacco smoking versus nasal sprayPharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 1994
- Chronic and acute tolerance to subjective effects of nicotinePharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 1993
- Nicotine delivery kinetics and abuse liability.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1993
- Nicotine delivery kinetics and abuse liability.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1993
- Inter‐relationships between conditioned and primary reinforcement in the maintenance of cigarette smokingBritish Journal of Addiction, 1991
- Gender differences in tobacco use.Health Psychology, 1991
- Gender differences in tobacco use.Health Psychology, 1991
- Controlled Dosing of Nicotine: A Review of Problems and ProgressAnnals of Behavioral Medicine, 1989
- Mecamylamine increases nicotine preference and attenuates nicotine discriminationPharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 1989
- Predictors of outcome in a general practitioner intervention against smokingPreventive Medicine, 1986