skip to main content


Title: Sadness, but not all negative emotions, heightens addictive substance use

Do negative feelings in general trigger addictive behavior, or do specific emotions play a stronger role? Testing these alternative accounts of emotion and decision making, we drew on the Appraisal Tendency Framework to predict that sadness, specifically, rather than negative mood, generally, would 1) increase craving, impatience, and actual addictive substance use and 2) do so through mechanisms selectively heightened by sadness. Using a nationally representative, longitudinal survey, study 1 (n= 10,685) revealed that sadness, but not other negative emotions (i.e., fear, anger, shame), reliably predicted current smoking as well as relapsing 20 years later. Study 2 (n= 425) used an experimental design, and found further support for emotion specificity: Sadness, but not disgust, increased self-reported craving relative to a neutral state. Studies 3 and 4 (n= 918) introduced choice behavior as outcome variables, revealing that sadness causally increased impatience for cigarette puffs. Moreover, study 4 revealed that the effect of sadness on impatience was more fully explained by concomitant appraisals of self-focus, which are specific to sadness, than by concomitant appraisals of negative valence, which are general to all negative emotions. Importantly, study 4 also examined the topography of actual smoking behavior, finding that experimentally induced sadness (as compared to neutral emotion) causally increased the volume and duration of cigarette puffs inhaled. Together, the present studies provide support for a more nuanced model regarding the effects of emotion on tobacco use, in particular, as well as on addictive behavior, in general.

 
more » « less
Award ID(s):
1559511
NSF-PAR ID:
10129045
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume:
117
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0027-8424
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 943-949
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract Background and Aims

    Frequent experiences of discrimination could increase vulnerability to tobacco withdrawal and smoking lapse in populations subject to tobacco‐related health disparities. This laboratory study (2013–17) examined whether individual differences in perceived exposure to discrimination in one's daily life predicted tobacco withdrawal symptoms and smoking lapse behavior following acute tobacco deprivation in African American smokers.

    Design

    Mixed design with the between‐subjects continuous variable of perceived discrimination crossed with the within‐subject variable of tobacco deprivation status (deprived versus non‐deprived).

    Setting

    Academic medical center in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

    Participants

    African American non‐treatment seeking daily cigarette smokers (n = 607, ≥ 10 cig/day).

    Measurements

    At a baseline visit, self‐reported frequency of perceived exposure to discrimination in one's daily life was measured [everyday discrimination scale (EDDS)]. At two subsequent counterbalanced experimental visits (16‐hour tobacco deprivation versusad‐libitumsmoking), self‐report assessments of various tobacco withdrawal symptom domains [Brief Questionnaire of Smoking Urges), Wisconsin Smoking Withdrawal Scale (WSWS), Profile of Mood States (POMS), Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) and Current Impulsivity Scale (CIS)) and a behavioral smoking lapse analogue task were measured.

    Findings

    Adjusted models demonstrated that greater frequency of perceived exposure to discrimination was associated with larger deprivation‐induced increases in acute urges to smoke to alleviate negative mood, several negative mood states and subjective cognitive functioning—effect sizes were small in magnitude (βs = 0.09–0.13;Ps < 0.02). Data were inconclusive for associations between perceived exposure to discrimination and deprivation‐induced changes in cravings, urges to smoke for pleasure, positive mood reduction, other symptoms or smoking reinstatement behavior.

    Conclusions

    Frequency of perceived exposure to discrimination appears to be modestly associated with increased severity of some deprivation‐induced tobacco withdrawal symptoms in African American smokers.

     
    more » « less
  2. ABSTRACT Objective

    A holistic understanding of the naturalistic dynamics among physical activity, sleep, emotions, and purpose in life as part of a system reflecting wellness is key to promoting well-being. The main aim of this study was to examine the day-to-day dynamics within this wellness system.

    Methods

    Using self-reported emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, anxiousness) and physical activity periods collected twice per day, and daily reports of sleep and purpose in life via smartphone experience sampling, more than 28 days as college students (n= 226 young adults; mean [standard deviation] = 20.2 [1.7] years) went about their daily lives, we examined day-to-day temporal and contemporaneous dynamics using multilevel vector autoregressive models that consider the network of wellness together.

    Results

    Network analyses revealed that higher physical activity on a given day predicted an increase of happiness the next day. Higher sleep quality on a given night predicted a decrease in negative emotions the next day, and higher purpose in life predicted decreased negative emotions up to 2 days later. Nodes with the highest centrality were sadness, anxiety, and happiness in the temporal network and purpose in life, anxiety, and anger in the contemporaneous network.

    Conclusions

    Although the effects of sleep and physical activity on emotions and purpose in life may be shorter term, a sense of purpose in life is a critical component of wellness that can have slightly longer effects, bleeding into the next few days. High-arousal emotions and purpose in life are central to motivating people into action, which can lead to behavior change.

     
    more » « less
  3. Abstract Introduction

    Cross-sectional surveys found behavioral heterogeneity among dual users of combustible and electronic cigarettes. Yet, prior classification did not reflect dynamic interactions between cigarette and e-cigarette consumption, which may reveal changes in product-specific dependence. The contexts of dual use that could inform intervention were also understudied.

    Methods

    This study conducted secondary analysis on 13 waves of data from 227 dual users who participated in a 2-year observational study. The k-means method for joint trajectories of cigarette and e-cigarette consumption was adopted to identify the subtypes of dual users. The time-varying effect model was used to characterize the subtype-specific trajectories of cigarette and e-cigarette dependence. The subtypes were also compared in terms of use contexts.

    Results

    The four clusters were identified: light dual users, predominant vapers, heavy dual users, and predominant smokers. Although heavy dual users and predominant smokers both smoked heavily at baseline, by maintaining vaping at the weekly to daily level the heavy dual users were able to considerably reduce cigarette use. Yet, the heavy dual users’ drop in cigarette dependence was not as dramatic as their drop in cigarette consumption. Predominant vapers appeared to engage in substitution, as they decreased their smoking and increased their e-cigarette dependence. They were also more likely to live in environments with smoking restrictions and report that their use of e-cigarettes reduced cigarette craving and smoking frequency.

    Conclusions

    Environmental constraints can drive substitution behavior and the substitution behavior is able to be sustained if people find the substitute to be effective.

    Implications

    This study characterizes subtypes of dual users based on the dynamic interactions between cigarette use and e-cigarette use as well as product-specific trajectories of dependence. The subtypes differ in not only sociodemographic characteristics but also contexts of cigarette and e-cigarette use. Higher motivation to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking and less permissive environment for smoking may promote substitution of cigarettes by e-cigarettes.

     
    more » « less
  4. Abstract Background

    While negative affect (NA) typically increases risk for binge eating, the ultimate impact of NA may depend on a person's ability to regulate their emotions. In this daily, longitudinal study, we examined whether emotion regulation (ER) modified the strength of NA‐dysregulated eating associations.

    Methods

    Women (N = 311) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry first reported dimensional binge eating symptoms and broad ER difficulties (e.g., limited emotional awareness, difficulty controlling emotional impulses). Participants then rated use of adaptive (cognitive reappraisal, social sharing, situation modification, and acceptance) and maladaptive (rumination, expressive suppression, and self‐criticism) ER strategies, emotional eating (EE), objective binge eating (OBE), and NA once daily for 49 consecutive days.

    Results

    There were several main effects of ER on binge‐eating pathology in both between‐person (i.e., comparing women who differed on average) and within‐person (i.e., examining fluctuations in variables day‐to‐day) analyses. Between‐person, greater broad ER difficulties, greater maladaptive strategy use, and lower adaptive strategy use were all associated with greater binge‐eating pathology. Within‐person, greater maladaptive strategy use was associated with greater odds of OBE on that day and on the following day. However, neither broad ER difficulties nor use of specific strategies moderated associations between NA and dysregulated eating in between‐ or within‐person analyses.

    Conclusions

    While ER is independently associated with risk for dysregulated eating, it may not fully mitigate the impact of NA. Additional strategies (e.g., decreasing environmental stressors and increasing social support) may be needed to minimize NA and its impact on dysregulated eating.

    Public Significance

    Negative affect (NA; e.g., sadness, guilt) increases dysregulated eating risk. Because NA is sometimes unavoidable, we examined whether emotion regulation (ER; i.e., how a person responds to their emotions) might impact whether NA leads to dysregulated eating. Although more effective ER was associated with less dysregulated eating overall, ER did not impact the association between NA and dysregulated eating. Other approaches may therefore be needed to mitigate NA‐dysregulated eating associations.

     
    more » « less
  5. Substance abuse is a fundamentally dynamic disease, characterized by repeated oscillation between craving, drug self-administration, reward, and satiety. To model nicotine addiction as a control system, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible nicotine delivery system is needed to elicit cyclical cravings. Using a concentric nebulizer, inserted into one nostril, we delivered each dose equivalent to a single cigarette puff by a syringe pump. A control mechanism permits dual modes: one delivers puffs on a fixed interval programmed by researchers; with the other, subjects press a button to self-administer each nicotine dose. We tested the viability of this delivery method for studying the brain’s response to nicotine addiction in three steps. First, we established the pharmacokinetics of nicotine delivery, using a dosing scheme designed to gradually achieve saturation. Second, we lengthened the time between microdoses to elicit craving cycles, using both fixed-interval and subject-driven behavior. Finally, we demonstrate a potential application of our device by showing that a fixed-interval protocol can reliably identify neuromodulatory targets for pharmacotherapy or brain stimulation. Our MRI-compatible nasal delivery method enables the measurement of neural circuit responses to drug doses on a single-subject level, allowing the development of data-driven predictive models to quantify individual dysregulations of the reward control circuit causing addiction.

     
    more » « less