Abstract
Rationale
Female cigarette smokers tend to show greater cessation failure compared with males. Variables that contribute to the maintenance of smoking, including stress and craving, may differentially impact male and female smokers. Novel pharmacotherapies, such as oxytocin, may attenuate stress reactivity and craving in smokers, but work in this area is limited.
Objectives
This study assessed the influence of gender and oxytocin on stress reactivity, craving, and smoking in a randomized, placebo-controlled laboratory relapse paradigm.
Methods
Male and female adult cigarette smokers (ages 18–45) were enrolled (women oversampled 2:1) and completed a laboratory session, in which intranasal oxytocin or placebo was administered followed by a laboratory social stress task. The role of gender and oxytocin were assessed on measures of stress reactivity, cigarette craving, latency to smoke in a resistance task, subjective responses to smoking, and ad-libitum smoking.
Results
Participants (N = 144) had a mean age of 31 were 63% female and 56% White. Following stress induction, female smokers evidenced greater subjective stress than males, though males demonstrated greater neuroendocrine reactivity and smoking intensity than females. No gender differences were demonstrated for craving. Oxytocin did not attenuate any aspect of stress reactivity, craving, smoking, or subjective responses to smoking compared with placebo.
Conclusions
Gender differences in stress reactivity were shown in the hypothesized direction, but oxytocin appeared to exert little impact on subjective or behavioral metrics. Results highlight the complex relationship between gender, stress, and smoking, as well as the implications for oxytocin as a potential pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the study participants for their time and effort in completing study procedures. We would also like to thank the medical and research staff at the Medical University of South Carolina; specifically, Lori Ann Ueberroth, Laruen Beech, Jessica Hinton, Jaclyn Condo, Patrick Cato, Casy Johnson, Christine Horne, Danielle Paquette, Priscilla Muldrow, Elhaam Borhanian and Elizabeth Kryway.
Funding
This study was supported by National Institutes of Health grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA P50DA016511) and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS UL1TR001450). Effort to complete this project and manuscript was provided by grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA U01DA031779, NIDA R01DA042114, NIDA K01DA036739, NIDA T32DA035200, and NIDA R25 DA020537) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD K12 HD055885).
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McClure, E.A., Baker, N.L., Gray, K.M. et al. The influence of gender and oxytocin on stress reactivity, cigarette craving, and smoking in a randomized, placebo-controlled laboratory relapse paradigm. Psychopharmacology 237, 543–555 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-019-05392-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-019-05392-z