Home > Patterns of adaptation to stress cardiovascular responses in smokers during ad libitum smoking and withdrawal.

Keogh, Tracey M and Howard, Siobhán and Nakajima, Motohiro and al'Absi, Mustafa (2025) Patterns of adaptation to stress cardiovascular responses in smokers during ad libitum smoking and withdrawal. Psychophysiology, 62, (1), e14719. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14719.

External website: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psyp.1...

There is considerable evidence documenting associations between tobacco smoking, including initiation, maintenance, and relapse of addiction, with diminished cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress. However, less is known about how smokers respond to repeated stress across time. The current study examined patterns of cardiovascular reactivity and adaptation to recurrent stress among 24-h abstinence smokers, smokers who continued to smoke at their normal rate, and non-smokers. Smokers were randomly assigned to one of two groups; ad libitum (n = 42), or 24 h abstinence (n = 61); non-smokers (n = 43) provided comparative referencing. Across the two laboratory sessions, participants (n = 149) were asked to complete a modified version of the trier social stress test, while monitoring systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate activity. Results showed that while non-smokers had elevated cardiovascular reactivity to begin with, they showed a greater capacity to habituate to recurrent stress across sessions. The data also suggest that smokers displayed lower cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress and showed little habituation to repeated stress. In adjusted models, smokers exhibited less systolic blood pressure habituation to stress. This response profile in smokers may be a potential mechanism that leads to further cardiotoxic effects on health.


Item Type
Article
Publication Type
International, Open Access, Article
Drug Type
Tobacco / Nicotine
Intervention Type
Harm reduction
Date
2025
Identification #
https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14719
Volume
62
Number
1
EndNote

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