Hormonal, cardiovascular, and subjective responses to acute stress in smokers
Open accessAbstract
Rationale There are complex relationships between stress and smoking; smoking may reduce the emotional discomfort of stress, yet nicotine activates stress systems and may alter responses to acute stress. It is important to understand how smoking affects physiological and psychological outcomes after stress and how these may interact to motivate smoking. Objectives This study aimed to examine the magnitude and time course of hormonal, cardiovascular, and psychological responses to acute psychosocial stress in smokers and non-smokers to investigate whether responses to acute stress are altered in smokers. Materials and methods Healthy male non-smokers (n = 20) and smokers (n = 15) participated in two experimental sessions involving a standardized public speaking stress procedure and a control non-stressful task. The outcome measures included self-reported mood, cardiovascular measures (heart rate and blood pressure), and plasma hormone levels (noradrenaline, cortisol, progesterone, and allopregnanolone). Results Smokers exhibited blunted increases in cortisol after the Trier Social Stress Test, and they reported greater and more prolonged subjective agitation than non-smokers. Stress-induced changes in progesterone were similar between smokers and non-smokers, although responses overall were smaller among smokers. Stress did not significantly alter levels of allopregnanolone, but smokers exhibited lower plasma concentrations of this neurosteroid. Conclusions These findings suggest that smoking dampens hormonal responses to stress and prolongs subjective discomfort. Dysregulated stress responses may represent a breakdown in the body's ability to cope efficiently and effectively with stress and may contribute to smokers' susceptibility to acute stress, especially during abstinence.
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In men, neurosteroid levels are also variable, but fluctuations are lower than in females.
“In men, neurosteroid levels are also variable, but fluctuations are lower than in females [69].”
From Fibromyalgia pathogenesis explained by a neuroendocrine multistable model (2024) · cites this paper as [69]
The Introduction says the study included only men and excluded women because of concerns about menstrual-cycle variability. The Discussion reports considerable variation in allopregnanolone levels between male participants, but the paper does not compare fluctuations in men and women or establish that they are lower in men. No page numbers were provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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- Authors
- Childs, E., & de Wit, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Childs, Emma
- ORCID
- Childs, Emma
- Venue
- Psychopharmacology
- Published
- 2008-10-21
- Volume
- 203
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-12
- ISSN
- 0033-3158 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-2072
- PMC
- PMC2727744
- OpenAlex
- W2065292219
- Cited by
- 97
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 3.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Psychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Chicago
- Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA 02812, R01DA002812)
- National Center for Research Resources (M01 RR 000555, M01RR000055)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Keywords
- smoking, acute psychosocial stress, nicotine, cortisol, norepinephrine, progesterone, allopregnanolone, heart rate, blood pressure, stress coping, nicotine withdrawal, Trier Social Stress Test, non-smokers
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Affect, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Hormones, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Male, Motivation, Norepinephrine, Pregnanolone, Progesterone, Smoking, Speech, Stress, Psychological, Time Factors, Tobacco Use Disorder, Biomarkers, Case-Control Studies, Young Adult
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