Effect of nicotine on 35% CO2-induced anxiety: A study in healthy volunteers.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

Panic disorder and cigarette smoking co-occur at a rate that exceeds what would be expected by chance.

The present study was aimed at testing whether nicotine has a direct influence on laboratory-elicited panic.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover.

Because people in this Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) could be set against what happens without it.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

Physiological measures (blood pressure, heart rate) and rating scale scores (Panic Symptom List [PSL], Visual Analog Scale of Anxiety, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) were assessed.

What Was Measured

The present study was aimed at testing whether nicotine has a direct influence on laboratory-elicited panic.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Autonomic Nervous System, Blood Pressure, Carbon Dioxide, Ganglionic Stimulants, Heart Rate, Nicotine and Panic Disorder.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

The publication is from 2006 (Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco), a journal based in England.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.