Dizziness and the genetic influences on subjective experiences to initial cigarette use.

Aim: To examine individual differences in positive and negative subjective experiences to initial cigarette use.

Design: Retrospective self-reports of initial subjective experiences were examined to estimate the genetic and environmental influences and the extent of their covariation across different effects.

Participants: Data was drawn from 2482 young adult same-and opposite sex twins- and siblings participating in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Measurement: Subjective experiences were retrospectively collected using the Early Smoking Experience (ESE) questionnaire.

Findings: Positive experiences evidenced moderate heritable contributions (40%, 95% CI: 0.22 to 0.56), as did an overall hedonic measure (34%, 95% CI: 0.22 to 0.46) and dizziness (34%, 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.52). Negative experiences evidenced small heritable contributions (13%, 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.36). Individual specific environmental influences were strong and accounted for the remaining proportion of observed variation in these experiences. Multivariate genetic modeling identified a moderately heritable underlying factor (37%, 95% CI: 0.22 to 0.52) that influenced the covariation of diverse subjective experiences and loaded most heavily on dizziness. Positive experiences also evidence residual genetic influences that were uncorrelated with other subjective experiences.

Conclusions: How a person experiences their initial few cigarettes is due to both heritable contributions and environmental experiences unique to the person. The covariation of diverse subjective experiences appears to be due to a heritable latent sensitivity to the chemicals contained in an average cigarette and is best indexed by dizziness.