Featured Articles
- Ecstasy Gets Into the Brain Very Easily
- Troubled Teens in the Wilderness Learn to Love Learning
- What is a Safe Level of Drinking?
- Drugs and Memory
- Methamphetamine Remains Number One Drug Problem
- Ecstasy: Too Often a Fatal Trip
- Downward Trend in Teen Marijuana Use Slows; Prescription Drug Abuse Remains High
- Neuroimaging Identifies Brain Regions Possibly Involved in Alcohol Craving
- Substance Abuse Among Troops, Veterans, and Their Families
- Suicide Tied to Alcohol Intake
- What Effects Do Anabolic Steroids Have On Behavior?
- Study Shows Most Treatment Effective Against Alcoholism
- Marijuana's Memory Effects Tied to Misfiring Brain Cells
- Dealing with Acute and Chronic Pain While on Methadone
- Substance Use Associated with Low Response to Depression Treatment Among Teens
- OxyContin...Potential Fast Track To Addiction
Nicotine Withdrawal Starts Within Minutes of Smoking
Nicotine withdrawal symptoms begin just 30 minutes after a smoker takes his last drag, according to researchers.
Science Daily reported Aug. 22, 2006, that researchers from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute's Tobacco Research & Intervention Program and the University of South Florida studied a group of 50 pack-a-day smokers. Half the group was allowed to smoke as they normally would, while the others were asked to abstain from smoking for four hours.
The abstainers reported craving symptoms within the first half-hour, and performance on a concentration test declined; at the one-hour mark, participants reported rising anger, and feelings of anxiety, sadness, and more problems concentrating were reported at three hours.
"This study suggests that the typical smoker begins to feel somewhat out-of-sorts within an hour of his or her last cigarette," said lead author Thomas Brandon. "Although they are not yet in the throes of full withdrawal that they would experience after a day without nicotine, they can already perceive that they are not feeling quite right, and that a cigarette would offer temporary relief."
The research appears in the journal Psychopharmacology.
Hendricks, P., Ditre, J., Drobes, D., & Brandon, T. (2006). The early time course of smoking withdrawal effects. Psychopharmacology, 187(3): 385-396.
Source: Jointogether.org
