News Release

Research helps explain why women have harder time quitting smoking than men

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Center for Advancing Health

New findings may help to explain why it is harder for women to quit smoking than it is for men. Women take smaller and shorter puffs when smoking cigarettes than men do, and after smoking they find greater relief from withdrawal symptoms, such as restlessness and difficulty concentrating.

"The data suggest that the relief from withdrawal symptoms provided by cigarettes may be more profound for women who smoke than for men," says lead author of the study Thomas Eissenberg, PhD, of Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Psychology and Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies. "One reason that women may have more difficulty quitting smoking than men may be that current treatments have not emphasized the importance of the withdrawal relief that a cigarette provides to the smoker."

"The fact that women take smaller and shorter puffs than men also may mean that women take in less nicotine and are therefore less dependent on nicotine," said Eissenberg. "If women are less dependent on nicotine, effective treatment for women smokers may need to focus on other factors in addition to nicotine dependence."

Before, during, and after smoking two cigarettes, 38 men and 30 women rated their desire to smoke, their cravings for a cigarette, and their relief from withdrawal symptoms such as restlessness and difficulty concentrating. The smokers puffed through a device that recorded the size, number, duration, and time between each puff. The researchers also recorded each smoker's heart rate, blood pressure, and skin temperature. Eissenberg and colleagues report their findings in the current issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

After each cigarette, women experienced significantly greater decreases in their desire to smoke compared with men. Ratings of individual symptoms of withdrawal, such as difficulty concentrating and restlessness, also decreased more among women than among men. Overall, women reported significantly greater relief from withdrawal after smoking than did the men who participated in this study.

Interestingly, the women's physiological responses to smoking - in the form of heart rate, blood pressure, and skin temperature changes - were not significantly different than the men's were.

"These findings suggest that treatment providers may need to work even harder to identify what a cigarette provides for each individual smoker who comes in for treatment," said Eissenberg. "Suggesting a nicotine replacement medication (patch, gum, spray, or inhaler) is a good first step in any treatment program. Identifying the other factors that contribute to withdrawal relief for smokers, especially women smokers, is an essential line of future laboratory research."

The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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Nicotine & Tobacco Research is the official peer-reviewed quarterly journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. For information about the journal, contact Gary E. Swan, PhD, at (650) 859-5322.

Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health < http://www.cfah.org . For information about the Center, call Petrina Chong, < pchong@cfah.org > (202) 387-2829.


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