Cortisol response to a psychological stressor and/or nicotine.

The effects of a psychological stressor and nicotine upon corticosteroid release were investigated using a full factorial, repeated-measures design in eight moderate smokers. Sessions involved the presentation of either competitive mental arithmetic or reading aloud and either smoking a usual cigarette or sham smoking. Self-reported anxiety increased after exposure to competitive mental arithmetic, confirming the stressfulness of the procedure. Cortisol levels increased significantly in response to psychological stress and showed a trend towards a significant elevation over time in response to nicotine self-administration. The two manipulations in combination produced additive effects upon plasma cortisol. These findings underscore the usefulness of the corticosteroid response as a marker of the impact of different procedures and suggest that it may provide an indicator for exploring the mechanisms by which nicotine-stress interactions are mediated. Systematic research that varies temporal and other parameters involving nicotine and various stressors will be needed to resolve inconsistencies in the literature on smoking and anxiety in the context of stress.