Effects of 6-Week Use of Reduced-Nicotine Content Cigarettes in Smokers With and Without Elevated Depressive Symptoms.

Background: The FDA recently acquired regulatory authority over tobacco products, leading to renewed interest in whether reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes would reduce tobacco dependence in the United States. Given the association between depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking, it is important to consider whether smokers with elevated depressive symptoms experience unique benefits or negative consequences of nicotine reduction.

Methods: In this secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial that examined the effects of cigarettes varying in nicotine content over a 6-week period in non-treatment-seeking smokers, we used linear regression to examine whether baseline depressive symptom severity (scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [CES-D]) moderated the effects of reduced-nicotine content (RNC) cigarettes, relative to normal-nicotine content (NNC) cigarettes, on smoking rates, depressive symptom severity, and related subjective and physiological measures.

Smoking Abstinence-Induced Changes in Resting State Functional Connectivity with Ventral Striatum Predict Lapse During a Quit Attempt.

The ventral and dorsal striatum are critical substrates of reward processing and motivation and have been repeatedly linked to addictive disorders, including nicotine dependence. However, little is known about how functional connectivity between these and other brain regions is modulated by smoking withdrawal and may contribute to relapse vulnerability. In the present study, 37 smokers completed resting state fMRI scans during both satiated and 24-h abstinent conditions, prior to engaging in a 3-week quit attempt supported by contingency management.

Nicotine and Anatabine Exposure from Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes.

Objectives: Research using very low nicotine content (VLNC) cigarettes has shown that participants underreport use of non-study cigarettes. Biomarkers of nicotine exposure could be used to verify compliance with VLNC cigarettes. This study aimed to characterize biomarkers of exposure when participants exclusively use VLNC cigarettes.

The Impact of Smoking Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes on Alcohol Use.

Background: Reducing the nicotine content in cigarettes could improve public health by reducing smoking and toxicant exposure, but may also have unintended consequences on alcohol use. The primary objective of this study was to examine the effect of reducing the nicotine content in cigarettes on alcohol outcomes. The secondary aim was to examine whether the effects of these cigarettes on alcohol outcomes were mediated by changes in nicotine exposure, smoking behavior, or withdrawal.

Blunted striatal response to monetary reward anticipation during smoking abstinence predicts lapse during a contingency-managed quit attempt.

Rationale: Tobacco smoking is associated with dysregulated reward processing within the striatum, characterized by hypersensitivity to smoking rewards and hyposensitivity to non-smoking rewards. This bias toward smoking reward at the expense of alternative rewards is further exacerbated by deprivation from smoking, which may contribute to difficulty maintaining abstinence during a quit attempt.

Objective: We examined whether abstinence-induced changes in striatal processing of rewards predicted lapse likelihood during a quit attempt supported by contingency management (CM), in which abstinence from smoking was reinforced with money.

Randomized Trial of Reduced-Nicotine Standards for Cigarettes.

Background: The Food and Drug Administration can set standards that reduce the nicotine content of cigarettes.

Methods: We conducted a double-blind, parallel, randomized clinical trial between June 2013 and July 2014 at 10 sites. Eligibility criteria included an age of 18 years or older, smoking of five or more cigarettes per day, and no current interest in quitting smoking.

Abstinent adult daily smokers show reduced anticipatory but elevated saccade-related brain responses during a rewarded antisaccade task.

Chronic smoking may result in reduced sensitivity to non-drug rewards (e.g., money), a phenomenon particularly salient during abstinence.

Dissociated effects of anticipating smoking versus monetary reward in the caudate as a function of smoking abstinence.

Background: Theories of addiction suggest that chronic smoking may be associated with both hypersensitivity to smoking and related cues and hyposensitivity to alternative reinforcers. However, neural responses to smoking and nonsmoking rewards are rarely evaluated within the same paradigm, leaving the extent to which both processes operate simultaneously uncertain. Behavioral evidence and theoretical models suggest that dysregulated reward processing may be more pronounced during deprivation from nicotine, but neuroimaging evidence on the effects of deprivation on reward processing is limited.

Very low nicotine content cigarettes and potential consequences on cardiovascular disease.

Cigarette smoking remains highly prevalent in the U.S. and contributes significantly to cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Dose-response effects of spectrum research cigarettes.

Introduction: Experimental cigarettes are needed to conduct studies examining the effects of varying doses of nicotine content on smoking behavior. The National Institute on Drug Abuse contracted with Research Triangle Institute to make such cigarettes available to researchers. The goal of this study was to determine whether cigarettes that vary in nicotine content produce an expected dose-response effect.

Dependence and withdrawal-induced craving predict abstinence in an incentive-based model of smoking relapse.

Introduction: Understanding factors that render some individuals more vulnerable to smoking relapse during the early stages of a quit attempt is critical to tailoring treatment efforts. Development of laboratory models of relapse can provide a framework for identifying underlying mechanisms that may contribute to vulnerability. Here, we explored predictors of abstinence in a novel incentive-based model of relapse.

Comparison of Deliberate and Spontaneous Facial Movement in Smiles and Eyebrow Raises.

We investigated movement differences between deliberately posed and spontaneously occurring smiles and eyebrow raises during a videotaped interview that included a facial movement assessment. Using automated facial image analysis, we quantified lip corner and eyebrow movement during periods of visible smiles and eyebrow raises and compared facial movement within participants. As in an earlier study, maximum speed of movement onset was greater in deliberate smiles.

Puckering and blowing facial expressions in people with facial movement disorders.

Background And Purpose: People with facial movement disorders are instructed to perform various facial movements as part of their physical therapy rehabilitation. A difference in the movement of the orbicularis oris muscle has been demonstrated among people without facial nerve impairments when instructed to "pucker your lips" and to "blow, as if blowing out a candle." The objective of this study was to determine whether the within-subject difference between "pucker your lips" and "blow, as if blowing out a candle" found in people without facial nerve impairments is present in people with facial movement disorders.