Habituation–sensitization of cardiovascular reactivity to repeated stress in smokers and non-smokers: An anthropometrically matched trial

Alcohol and tobacco use and heart rate reactivity to a psychosocial stressor in an adolescent population

“…Those who smoked every day showed a blunted HR response to the stressful tasks compared to those who smoked less frequently or not at all. This finding is in line with several findings on adult smokers (Girdler et al, 1997;Phillips et al, 2009;Roy et al, 1994;Sheffield et al, 1997;Straneva et al, 2000) though is in contrast to other studies (Back et al, 2008;Childs and de Wit, 2009;Hughes and Higgins, 2010;Kirschbaum et al, 1993;Perkins et al, 1992;Tersman et al, 1991). While two studies examining HR reactivity in low versus high frequency tobacco users found no difference between these groups (both portrayed attenuated responses), we found that adolescents who smoked less frequently did not differ significantly from those who had never smoked.…”

“…Pertaining to tobacco use, the acute effect of smoking entails an increase in HR (Hasenfratz and Battig, 1992;James and Richardson, 1991;Pauli et al, 1993), though differences between habitual smokers and non-smokers in HR response to stress is unclear. Some studies reported no differences between smokers and non-smokers in resting HR (Kirschbaum et al, 1993;Perkins et al, 1992;Roy et al, 1994) or in response to psychosocial stress (Back et al, 2008;Childs and de Wit, 2009;Hughes and Higgins, 2010;Kirschbaum et al, 1993;Perkins et al, 1992;Tersman et al, 1991). Others reported increased resting HR in smokers (al'Absi et al, 2003;Phillips et al, 2009;Sheffield et al, 1997;Tsuda et al, 1996) and attenuated HR responses to psychological stressors in large community samples of men (Sheffield et al, 1997), in women (Girdler et al, 1997;Straneva et al, 2000) and with light as well as heavy smokers showing attenuated HR reactivity in comparison to non-smokers (Phillips et al, 2009;Roy et al, 1994).…”

Cardiovascular responses to mental activation of social support schemas

“…Smokers were included (n = 15) as were oral contraceptive (OC) users (n = 3, none of whom were also smokers). While debate persists over the influence of smoking and OC use on blood pressure (Davis, 1999;Hughes and Higgins, 2010;Schallmayer and Hughes, 2010;Ward et al, 1994), there were no differences in CVR between OC users and non-users, or smokers and non-smokers, in the present sample.…”

Sex differences in physiological response to the combination of stress and smoking

“…There is limited data regarding sex differences in habituation, particularly in smokers. Our results however are generally consistent with a study that found no sex differences in blood pressure or heart rate to a repeated computerized stressor task in smokers (in contrast to finding differences in diastolic blood pressure response in non-smokers) (Hughes and Higgins, 2010). The significance of these results requires further study.…”