A double-blind placebo controlled experimental study of nicotine: I--effects on incentive motivation

Brain reward pathways implicated in addiction appear to be less reactive in regular drug users; behavioural manifestations may include decreased sensitivity to natural reinforcers.

This study aimed to replicate earlier findings of abstinence-associated incentive motivation deficits in smokers and to determine whether these can be reversed with nicotine in the form of lozenge.

One hundred forty-five smokers were each tested twice, once after receiving nicotine, and once after receiving placebo lozenge in counterbalanced order. Participants completed various tests of incentive motivational functioning: a measure of subjective enjoyment, the Snaith-Hamilton pleasure scale (SHAPS); a simple card sorting task, the card arranging reward responsivity objective test (CARROT) with and without financial incentive; the modified emotional Stroop test; a cue-reactivity task; and a novel reaction time task to explore effects of signals of reward, the incentive motivational enhancement of response speed task.

Compared with performance during abstinence (placebo condition), nicotine was associated with: higher self-reported pleasure expectations on the SHAPS; enhanced responsiveness to financial reward on the CARROT in smokers who smoked 15 or more cigarettes a day; and greater interference from appetitive words on the Stroop task.

These results are generally consistent with contemporary neurobiological theories of addiction and suggest that short-term smoking abstinence is associated with impaired reward motivation which can be reversed with nicotine.