Nicotine deprivation amplifies attentional bias toward racial discrimination stimuli in African American adults who smoke cigarettes.

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, Vol 31(6), Dec 2023, 1023-1031; doi:10.1037/pha0000662High smoking prevalence and low quit smoking rates among African American adults are well-documented, but poorly understood. We tested a transdisciplinary theoretical model of psychopharmacological–social mechanisms underlying smoking among African American adults. This model proposes that nicotine’s acute attention-filtering effects may enhance smoking’s addictiveness in populations unduly exposed to discrimination, like African American adults, because nicotine reduces the extent to which discrimination-related stimuli capture attention, and in turn, generate distress. During nicotine deprivation, attentional biases toward discrimination may be unmasked and exacerbated, which may induce distress and perpetuate smoking. To test this model, this within-subject laboratory experiment determined whether attentional bias toward racial discrimination stimuli was amplified by nicotine deprivation in African American adults who smoked daily. Participants (N = 344) completed a computerized modified Stroop task assessing attentional interference from racial discrimination-related words during two counterbalanced sessions (nicotine sated vs. overnight nicotine deprived). The task required participants to quickly name the color of discrimination and matched neutral words. Word Type (Discrimination vs. Neutral) × Pharmacological State (Nicotine Deprived vs. Sated) effects on color n...
Source: Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research