State-specific effects of withdrawal in smokers

Comparisons of responses to a free-recall task were made in withdrawal and non-withdrawal states of 41 smokers. A 2 x 2 design was used to investigate state-specific learning effects in smokers during nicotine withdrawal using a list of 20 common words. Nicotine withdrawal was defined as a minimum of 12 hours abstinence from smoking. Physiological measures of heart rate and blood pressure were examined for drug-compensatory responses. No significant decreases in physiological responding were found. Additionally, no interaction was found between reported urge and withdrawal. The primary hypothesis regarding state-specific effects on recall was not supported. These findings are to be interpreted with caution, as sample-size was not sufficient to detect differences among groups