E-cigarette use to scale back cigarette smoking might not improve nicotine dependence

Digital cigarettes have attracted media and client consideration for claims of their addictive nature, number of flavors and elevated use amongst teenagers, sparking regulatory oversight and insurance policies. A Penn State School of Medication research means that these gadgets might assist individuals lower their dependence on flamable cigarettes—which include an array of dangerous chemical substances known as toxicants—with out growing their total nicotine dependence.

Smoking is a number one explanation for dying within the U.S., and regardless of curiosity in quitting and the supply of FDA-approved cessation strategies, people who smoke nonetheless wrestle to give up. Some public well being specialists have proposed e-cigarettes as a “decreased hurt” different to cigarettes for these not or capable of give up, citing reviews like one from the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medication, which discovered that substitution of e-cigarettes for flamable cigarettes decreased customers’ exposures to carcinogens and different dangerous toxicants.

Jessica Yingst, assistant professor of public well being sciences and Penn State Most cancers Institute researcher, and colleagues on the Penn State Heart for Analysis on Tobacco and Well being research e-cigarettes and whether or not they may help nicotine customers give up smoking or cut back their publicity to dangerous toxicants present in cigarettes. Their newest research investigated a standard query—whether or not initiation of digital cigarette use to scale back cigarette smoking may probably improve nicotine dependence.

“Analysis on this matter is conflicted, as a result of in prior research, members used their very own gadgets with unknown nicotine supply profiles,” Yingst stated. “Our research used gadgets with recognized nicotine supply profiles, which allowed us to successfully examine how the various ranges of nicotine in a tool would possibly have an effect on person nicotine dependence and skill to scale back cigarette consumption.”

The researchers enrolled 520 members enthusiastic about lowering their cigarette consumption however with no plans or curiosity to give up smoking, and instructed them to scale back their cigarette consumption over the six-month research interval. Members randomly obtained an e-cigarette that delivered 36, 8, or 0 mg/mL of nicotine; or a cigarette substitute that contained no tobacco, as an help of their efforts to scale back their cigarette consumption.

Members self-reported their cigarette and e-cigarette dependence at one, three and 6 months utilizing validated measures of dependence, together with a Penn State-developed questionnaire that ranged from 0 (under no circumstances dependent) to twenty (extremely dependent). Urine samples had been additionally collected all through the research to measure cotinine, a biomarker for nicotine publicity.

At six months, all members within the e-cigarette teams reported important, decreased cigarette consumption, with these within the 36 mg/mL group smoking the least variety of cigarettes per day. These within the e-cigarette teams reported considerably decrease dependence on the Penn State Cigarette Dependence Index than these within the cigarette substitute group.

Members additionally reported their e-cigarette dependence utilizing the Penn State E-Cigarette Dependence Index. E-cigarette dependence didn’t considerably change all through the research, excluding members within the 36 mg/mL group who noticed important, elevated dependence over the course of the research, but nonetheless a lot decrease compared with cigarette dependence. Urine cotinine ranges remained constant throughout all teams throughout the research, suggesting that there was no improve in total publicity to nicotine throughout the research. The outcomes had been revealed within the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Analysis.

“Our outcomes counsel that utilizing e-cigarettes or a cigarette substitute to scale back cigarette consumption may end up in a discount of self-reported cigarette use and dependence,” stated Yingst, who directs the School of Medication’s Physician of Public Well being Program. “Importantly, use of the excessive focus e-cigarette didn’t improve total nicotine dependence, and was related to a larger discount in cigarette smoking in comparison with the cigarette substitute.”

Whereas it has been hypothesized that the usage of e-cigarettes may improve total nicotine dependence, the analysis group stated their research discovered that initiating e-cigarette use to scale back cigarette consumption resulted in decreased cigarette dependence and low e-cigarette dependence. Sooner or later, they’ll consider the well being results of fully switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes.