Emotional distress and tobacco demand during the menstrual cycle in female smokers.

We examined between-group differences in emotional distress (negative affectivity, emotion dysregulation, distress intolerance) and hypothetical cigarette purchasing (i.e. tobacco demand) among female smokers at three different menstrual stages. Women (n = 32) were non-treatment seeking daily smokers not on hormonal contraceptive, and were currently in their follicular (estradiol-dominant; n = 10), early-mid luteal (progesterone-dominant; n = 15), and late-luteal phase (decreasing progesterone/estradiol; n = 7). Effect sizes are reported given the small sample. Women in the late-luteal phase, relative to the follicular and early-mid luteal phases, reported higher levels of negative affectivity (d = 0.69), emotion dysregulation (d = 1.03), and distress intolerance (d = -0.86). Compared to the early-mid luteal and late-luteal phases, women in the follicular phase reported the highest hypothetical cigarette consumption when cigarettes were free (d = 0.71) and made the largest maximum expenditures on cigarettes (d = 0.74). Findings offer preliminary evidence that the late-luteal phase is characterized by emotional distress, and the follicular phase is associated with elevated tobacco demand, which if replicated could implicate ovarian hormones in emotion-focused smoking. PMID: 30064348 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Cogn Behav Ther Source Type: research