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Effects of tobacco smoking on the human pupil
1Department of Pharmacology, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-0632, USA.
Objective:
Determine the effects of tobacco cigarette or sham placebo-smoking on pupil diameter.
Subjects:
Ten non-smokers and 10 tobacco smokers (all healthy, drug free adults) were studied while resting in a comfortable lounger.
Methods:
Tobacco smokers abstained from smoking and all subjects abstained from caffeine-containing products for at least 8 h prior to testing. The smokers each smoked one tobacco cigarette, and the non-smokers each inhaled air through an unlit sham cigarette. Right pupil diameter, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured before and after sham- or tobacco-smoking in each subject. Pupil size was measured from a colored photograph taken with a Polaroid camera equipped with a high-speed flash with the subject in a standardized, dimly lit quiet room.
Results:
There was no significant difference in baseline pupil diameter between non-smokers and smokers prior to sham- or tobacco-smoking. After sham- or tobacco-smoking, both non-smokers and smokers showed slight but statistically significant pupillary constriction.
Conclusions:
Shortly after smoking one tobacco cigarette, pupillary constriction was greater than after sham-smoking.