Nicotine deprivation, temporal discounting and choice consistency in heavy smokers

The subjective value of rewards declines the longer rewards are delayed into the future ("delay discounting"). Discounting behavior varies both as a function of an individual's trait and current state. The degree of discounting has repeatedly been associated with relapse following treatment of addiction. Therefore, the effects of acute drug deprivation on discounting processes are potentially of high clinical relevance. In two testing sessions (24 hr of nicotine deprivation vs. normal smoking) 37 heavy smoking participants made choices between immediate and delayed rewards as well as between shorter and longer delayed rewards. We found no evidence for an effect of nicotine deprivation on delay discounting of potentially real monetary rewards in both types of decision tasks. Although choice stochasticity was numerically increased after deprivation, this effect was not significant (p>.1). Participants responded significantly slower after nicotine deprivation. Our study supports previous findings that choice impulsivity as measured using discounting tasks is not affected by nicotine deprivation, at least not if real monetary rewards of lower amounts are at stake.