Nicotine withdrawal increases threat-induced anxiety but not fear: neuroadaptation in human addiction.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Stress response neuroadaptation has been repeatedly implicated in animal addiction models for many drugs, including nicotine. Programmatic laboratory research that examines the stress response of nicotine-deprived humans is necessary to confirm that stress neuroadaptations observed in animal models generalize to humans.

Methods

Two experiments tested the prediction that nicotine deprivation selectively increases startle response associated with anxiety during unpredictable threat but not fear during imminent, predictable threat. Dependent smokers (n = 117) were randomly assigned to 24-hour nicotine-deprived or nondeprived groups and participated in one of two experiments wherein electric shock was administered either unpredictably (noncontingent shock; Experiment

SUBMITTER: Hogle JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2949532 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature