Associations Between Race, Menthol, and Acute Tobacco Withdrawal

Abstract

African Americans experience greater tobacco-related morbidity and mortality than Caucasians, have greater difficulty quitting tobacco than Caucasians, and are more likely to smoke mentholated cigarettes than Caucasians. The mechanisms underlying racial differences in smoking cessation are not clear and scant research has investigated the effect of race and menthol smoking on acute tobacco withdrawal. This study investigated whether African-American (n = 104) and Caucasian smokers (n = 99) differed in abstinence-induced changes in self-report, physiological, and cognitive performance measures. Smokers not wishing to quit completed two counterbalanced experimental sessions. Before one session they abstained from smoking for 12 hours, and before the other session they smoked normally. African Americans were more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than Caucasians. African Americans reported smaller abstinence-induced changes on subjective measures, including the total scores of the Questionnaire for Smoking Urges (QSU) and the Wisconsin Withdrawal Smoking Scale (WSWS). Compared to Caucasians, African Americans reported higher ratings of craving and withdrawal at the non-abstinent session, but there was no such difference during the abstinent session. There were no effects of race on abstinence-induced changes in electroencephalogram measures or cognitive performance. Caucasian participants who smoked menthol cigarettes did not generally exhibit greater abstinence-induced change scores than Caucasian participants who smoked non-menthol cigarette. In summary, there was no evidence that African Americans experience greater acute tobacco withdrawal than Caucasians, or that menthol smokers experience greater acute tobacco withdrawal than non-menthol smokers.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 13, 2013
Accession Number
AD1013048

Entities

People

  • Cendrine Robinson

Organizations

  • Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Brain
  • Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena
  • Data Analysis
  • Drug Abuse
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Families (Human)
  • Health Services
  • Information Processing
  • Medical Personnel
  • Minority Groups
  • Native Americans
  • Neurosciences
  • Psychology
  • Public Health
  • Sociology

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

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