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Little evidence that "denicotinized" menthol cigarettes have pharmacological effects: an
W S Pritchard1, M E Houlihan, T D Guy
1Psychophysiology Laboratory, Bowman Gray Technical Center 611-12, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Winston-Salem, NC 27102, USA. pritchw@rjrt.com
Rationale:
A substantial portion of cigarette smokers prefer menthol-flavored cigarettes. To date, however, no studies have examined whether menthol in cigarettes has central pharmacological effects.
Objective:
We investigated psychophysiological and subjective effects of smoking menthol versus non-menthol cigarettes in both menthol and non-menthol smokers. To assess these effects independently of the immediate effects of nicotine, all cigarettes employed were "denicotinized" (FTC nicotine yield = 0.06 mg).
Methods:
The psychophysiological measures were EEG and heart rate (HR). The subjective measures assessed mental alertness, muscular relaxation, anxiety/nervousness, and how much a participant wanted to smoke one of his usual brand of cigarettes. Menthol and non-menthol smokers participated in a single session in which each participant smoked both a menthol and a non-menthol denicotinized cigarette (order balanced across participants). The psychophysiological and subjective measures were recorded before and after smoking each cigarette.
Results:
Out of 48 F-ratios spanning 22 analyses of variance involving the critical interaction between pre-/post-smoking and menthol/non-menthol cigarette, only one unambiguously fit a "pharmacological" pattern, a result indistinguishable from a type-I statistical error. We report evidence that menthol smokers may be chronically less aroused and more sensitive to the effects of nicotine than non-menthol smokers.
Conclusions:
We found little evidence that menthol in cigarettes has central pharmacological effects.