Anxiety and Muscle Tension as Consequences of Caffeine Withdrawal

Abstract

Regular [human] consumers of caffeine had higher muscle tension after 3 or more h of abstinence than low caffeine consumers. This difference was absent after double-blind administration of caffeine citrate or placebo. In a discriminative reaction time test, caffeine treatment improved performance. Among subjects receiving placebo, anxiety was highly correlated with prior caffeine use, suggesting that even a brief abstinence may produce anxiety in the regular user.