Smoking status and nicotine administration differentially modify hemodynamic stress reactivity in men and women.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To investigate the impact of cigarette smoking and oral contraceptive (OC) use on hemodynamic stress responses of women.

Also, to examine gender differences in stress reactivity as a function of smoking status and acute nicotine administration.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 46 women were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, both men and women.

Thirty men and 46 women, differing in smoking status and OC use, were tested for cardiovascular stress responses to a variety of behavioral and physical stressors.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group a baseline to be compared against.

Each was tested twice, once under a transdermal nicotine patch condition and once under a placebo patch condition.

Impedance cardiography was used to estimate hemodynamic reactivity noninvasively.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Administration, Cutaneous, Arousal, Blood Pressure, Cardiac Output, Cardiography, Impedance, Contraceptives, Oral and Heart Rate.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in 46 women.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1997 (Psychosomatic medicine), a journal based in United States.

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