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Lack of inhibitory control predicts cigarette smoking dependence: Evidence from a non-deprived sample of light to moderate smokers

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Abstract

Objective

To examine the relationship between prepotent inhibition capacities and cigarette dependence in a sample of non-deprived light to moderate smokers.

Methods

Fifty volunteer smokers were screened with a laboratory go-stop paradigm, and self-reports of cigarette dependence (Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, FTND) and cigarette craving (revised Questionnaire on Smoking Urge, QSU-12).

Results

Correlation and regression analyses showed that lower prepotent inhibition capacities predict higher levels of cigarette dependence when individual differences in processing speed, craving states, and age were controlled for. In addition, lower inhibition capacity is associated with a higher number of cigarettes smoked per day.

Conclusions

A poor ability to inhibit prepotent responses seems to be one of the individual factors related to cigarette smoking dependence.

Introduction

A variety of psychological factors have been shown to play a role in addictive behaviours (e.g. executive functions, impulsivity, personality traits, reinforcement sensitivity, attentional bias). A growing body of evidence suggests that addictive behaviours are associated with impairments in prepotent response inhibition, that is, the capacity to deliberately control or suppress an automatic behaviour (Groman et al., 2009). Indeed, control participants perform significantly better on laboratory tasks assessing prepotent response inhibition (e.g. go/no-go tasks, stop-signal tasks) than do persons who abuse substances such as cocaine (Fillmore and Rusch, 2002), methamphetamine (Monterosso et al., 2005), marijuana (Ramaekers et al., 2006), or alcohol (Li et al., 2009). Accordingly, it has been proposed that individuals with poor inhibitory control experience greater difficulties not consuming substances in reaction to strong substance-approach motivations, despite the potential negative consequences (e.g. Gullo and Dawe, 2008).

A few studies have investigated inhibition capacities of smokers compared with non-smokers. The majority of these studies did not find differences in inhibitory control (measured with go/no-go or stop-signal tasks) between non-smokers and light smokers (approximately 5–10 cigarettes per day; Dinn et al., 2004, Reynolds et al., 2007) or heavier smokers (at least 15 cigarettes per day, Monterosso et al., 2005). Only one study found smokers to be less efficient in inhibitory control (measured with a go/no-go task) than control participants (Spinella, 2002). Unfortunately, no information concerning the smokers was provided in the study (e.g. exact number of cigarettes smoked per day).

Interestingly, recent data support that individual differences in inhibitory control may play a role in the heaviness of smoking. More precisely, Spinella (2002) reported that the errors in a go/no-go task are positively correlated with the number of cigarette packs smoked daily, and Glass et al. (2009) found that lower inhibition capacities (measured with a stop-signal task) are associated with a higher consumption of cigarettes. In the latter study, smoking was measured with an index computed by multiplying average daily use (in packs) by the number of years of smoking. Consequently, individual differences in inhibition seem to be related to the heaviness of smoking. In addition, Krishnan-Sarin et al. (2007) found that adolescents who successfully complete a smoking cessation program have a lower rate of inhibition errors in a go/no-go task than do those who quit the program before its end.

Taken conjointly, these findings do not support the concept that smokers are impaired in inhibition compared with non-smokers, whereas it seems that smokers with lower inhibition capacities are prone to consume more cigarettes. Nevertheless, the potential impact of individual differences in the ability to inhibit a prepotent response at the level of cigarette dependence remains unexplored.

The objective of the current study was to further investigate the relationship between inhibitory control and cigarette dependence in a sample of light to moderate smokers. Studies on light and moderate smokers are of much interest because the prevalence of such smoking profiles has greatly increased in recent years with the implementation of strong tobacco control policies and restrictions by many countries (e.g. Shiffman, 2009). The study was also motivated by the fact that heavy smoking (in contrast to light smoking) frequently co-occurs with psychiatric problems associated with inhibition impairment (e.g. drug abuse, Monterosso et al., 2005). No control group was used, as our goal was to explore the role of individual differences in inhibition among smokers and not to undertake another study designed to compare inhibition in smokers versus non-smokers.

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

A total of 50 smokers (28 women, 22 men), recruited via advertisement at the University of Geneva, took part in the study. The mean age of the sample was 25.66 years (SD = 5.28) and the mean number of years of schooling was 15.76 (SD = 2.78). Participants were non-deprived smokers at the time of the experiment. Inclusion criteria consisted of being a light to moderate smoker (smoking up to 20 cigarettes daily) and a native or fluent speaker of French. Exclusion criteria comprised other substance

Results

Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis are reported in Table 1. A significant relationship between the SSRT and the FTND was found, indicating that poor inhibition capacities are associated with higher levels of nicotine dependence. The two factors of the QSU-12 were correlated, as were reaction times and the SSRT in the go-stop task. No other significant correlation was found. A student t-test revealed that participants who smoke less than 10 cigarettes per day have higher inhibition

Discussion

The aim of the present study was to examine whether individual differences in inhibitory control predict cigarette smoking dependence among light to moderate smokers. Correlation and regression analyses demonstrated that lower inhibition abilities predict higher levels of cigarette dependence when individual differences in processing speed, craving state, and age were controlled for. Moreover, results also showed that lower inhibition capacity is associated with a higher number of cigarettes

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Role of funding source

No funding was provided for that study.

Contributors

Joël Billieux and Martial Van der Linden designed the study. Joël Billieux, Martial Van der Linden, Philippe Gay, and Lucien Rochat contributed to writing the manuscript. Joël Billieux undertook the statistical analysis. Yasser Khazaal, Daniele Zullino, and Martial Van der Linden contributed to the editing and review of the final manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

References (20)

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