Nicotine dependence in cigarette smoking: an empirically-based, multivariate model.

Nicotine dependence implies a pattern of heavy smoking which is resistant to change, as well as nicotine tolerance, withdrawal, and regulation. The present study attempted to develop a coherent model of cigarette smoking by examining responses on several different measures of nicotine dependence. Twenty-seven habitual smokers filled out questionnaires before and after smoking research cigarettes differing in nicotine content in the laboratory. Plasma cotinine was used to estimate nicotine intake from usual brand cigarettes outside the laboratory. Subjects in the high cotinine quartile (heavy smokers) were found to be consistently more nicotine-dependent than subjects in the low cotinine quartile (light smokers). Taking all subjects into account, the six measures of nicotine dependence which exhibited significant correlations with plasma cotinine accounted for about half of the cotinine variance in a multivariate, linear-regression model. Multivariate approaches provide additional tools for assessing biobehavioral mechanisms in substance abuse and may lead to the development of more-comprehensive and sufficient explanations of smoking than are currently available.