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Hindi Research Article
Effects of Nicotine-Free E-Cigarettes on Urges to Smoke and Cigarette Withdrawal Symptoms: A Randomised Cross-Over Study
| Dunja Przulj*, Hayden McRobbie and Peter Hajek | |
| Health and Lifestyle Research Unit, Queen Mary University of London, UK | |
| Corresponding Author : | Dunja Przulj Health and Lifestyles Research Unit 2 Stayner’s Road, London E1 4AH, UK Tel: 44207 882 5949 E-mail: d.przulj@qmul.ac.uk |
| Received date: Dec 09, 2015; Accepted date: Jan 05, 2016; Published date: Jan 11, 2016 | |
| Citation: Przulj D, McRobbie H, Hajek P (2016) Effects of Nicotine-Free E-Cigarettes on Urges to Smoke and Cigarette Withdrawal Symptoms: A Randomised Cross-Over Study. J Addict Res Ther 7:259. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000259 | |
| Copyright: © 2016 Przulj D, et al., This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
| Related article at Pubmed, Scholar Google | |
Abstract
Objective: Nicotine-free electronic cigarettes (EC) alleviate cigarette withdrawal symptoms in the short-term. This is likely due to mimicking sensations of smoking, but could be a simple distraction effect. To test this, effects of EC were compared to effects of a distraction tool (a stress ball; SB) on ratings of cigarette withdrawal symptoms following overnight abstinence and following a day of abstinence.
Method: Thirty-seven smokers (≥ 18 years; at least 10 cigarettes per day, smoking within an hour of waking) participated in a randomised cross-over trial, with two conditions (EC and SB) following overnight abstinence, on two separate days. Measures were completed in the morning and again in the evening following EC and SB use throughout the day while trying to abstain from smoking. The primary outcome was changes in urge-to-smoke (11-point scale) from baseline to 10-minutes after product use, following overnight abstinence; secondary outcomes included ratings of cigarette withdrawal symptoms after product use over 1 hour in the morning, and again in the evening following abstinence over the day.
Results: EC reduced urge-to-smoke to a greater extent than SB (p=0.012) [95% Cl: 0.65-1.34]. Urge-to-smoke and withdrawal symptom ratings over the hour in the morning were significantly lower with EC (p<0.001 and p=0.002, respectively), but this effect diminished by the evening.
Conclusion: Nicotine free EC alleviated urges-to-smoke acutely, over and above a distraction effect. The effect however weakened over the day.
