Reduced Nicotine Cigarettes: Effects on Withdrawal, Cognition and Brain Function

To improve public health, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to set a standard for nicotine content in cigarettes, but empirical data is required to guide policy.

It is particularly important to determine whether cigarettes that contain reduced nicotine content can alleviate both cognitive and non-cognitive tobacco-related withdrawal symptoms that hinder successful cessation, and whether individual differences influence responses to smoking such cigarettes.

To determine the behavioural and neural responses to smoking reduced nicotine cigarettes, we examined 44 daily smokers who underwent behavioural and cognitive testing while inside and outside of an MRI scanner, both before and after smoking cigarettes delivering either 0.027mg, 0.110mg, 0.231mg, 0.763mg or a conventional (~1.2mg) dose of nicotine, in a within-subjects design.

Reduced nicotine cigarettes were largely well tolerated, and adequately alleviated many tobacco-withdrawal symptoms, particularly the non-cognitive symptoms such as craving and negative affect. Importantly, individual differences in sex/gender, level of nicotine dependence and rate of nicotine metabolism did influence responses to smoking these cigarettes. Finally, the neural mechanisms of reductions in withdrawal symptoms due to the nicotine aspects of smoking were found to differ from the neural mechanisms of such reductions due to the non-nicotine sensorimotor aspects of smoking.

Published Work:

1. Faulkner P, Ghahremani DG, Tyndale RF, Paterson NE, Cox CM, Hellemann G, Ginder N & London ED (2019) Neural Basis of Smoking-Induced Relief of Craving and Negative Affect: Contribution of Nicotine Addiction Biology

2. Ghahremani DG, Faulkner P, Cox CM & London ED (2018)
   Behavioural and Neural Markers of Cigarette-Craving Regulation in Young-Adult Smokers During Abstinence and After Smoking Neuropsychopharmacology

3. Faulkner P, Petersen N, Ghahremani DG, Cox CM, Tyndale RF, Helleman G, & London ED (2018) Sex Differences in Tobacco Withdrawal and Responses to Smoking Reduced Nicotine Cigarettes Psychopharmacology

4. Faulkner P, Ghahremani DG, Tyndale RF, Cox CM, Kazanjian AS, Patterson N, Lotfipour S, Helleman G, Peterson N, Vigil C, & London, ED (2017) Reduced-Nicotine Cigarettes in Young Smokers: Impact of Nicotine Metabolism on Nicotine Dose Effects Neuropsychopharmacology