Current models of nicotine dependence: what is known and what is needed to advance understanding of tobacco etiology among youth

doi:10.1016/S0376-8716(99)00162-3

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Volume 59, Supplement 1, 1 May 2000, Pages 9-22

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-8716(99)00162-3 Get rights and content

Abstract

Youth smoking has risen dramatically during the last 5 years, leading one to the conclusion that prevention interventions have not been particularly effective. This paper provides an examination of features that define adult nicotine dependence and argues that these features need to be considered in any studied examination of youth etiology and development to nicotine dependence. We review the historical context for the concept of nicotine dependence, features that define the concept and current models of substance dependence more generally. Recommendations for future research are provided.

Section snippets

Introductory remarks: the problem of youth smoking

The majority of youth experiment with tobacco and nicotine-containing products and over 25% of these individuals proceed to regular tobacco usage as adults (Escobedo et al., 1997, Giovino, 1997). After years of decline, it is now apparent that smoking initiation is rising dramatically among adolescents in the United States (CDC, 1994, CDC, 1998) and throughout the world (Winder et al., 1994, Villalbi, 1995, WHO, 1999). Recent projections suggest that of the adolescents who become regular

Conceptual framework and organizational structure

The desired use of a concept will ultimately determine the manner in which it is defined (Garfinkel, 1981). By necessity, then, our first task in exploring the theoretical concept of dependence is to ask what we would like the concept to do for us. At the most basic levels, we are interested in answering the following questions:

1.
What constitutes nicotine dependence?
2.
How does nicotine dependence develop?
3.
Who becomes nicotine dependent? and
4.
Where does nicotine dependence lead?

In order to address the

Features of substance dependence

This section reviews the prototypic features of substance dependence and relates these factors to conceptions of nicotine dependence. Several concerns need to be kept in mind. First, the review is meant to describe independently each feature as much as possible; we reserve theoretical analyses of the dynamic relationship between the features for a later section of this essay. Second, our review of the literature here, and throughout, is necessarily selective, for the purposes of illustration.

Models of dependence

Independently listing and describing the features that comprise dependence is somewhat of an atheoretical enterprise; it does not comprise a theory of dependence. The features represent the phenomenon to be explained by theory, and theory ties together these seemingly disparate features. Models of dependence do not typically differ in their acceptance of the existence of the features. Rather, theories or models of dependence differ in the emphasis or role they give each feature. In one theory,

Concluding remarks: a proposed research agenda

This essay has provided a picture of substance dependence as it is manifest among adults. It is apparent, however, that these models do little to address the etiology of tobacco use and dependence among youth. The data which support the various models of dependence are based primarily on research with adult populations and with adult animal samples. Very little comprehensive theoretical information is available on nicotine dependence as a concept among youth. A developmental analysis of these

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the members of the Tobacco Etiology Research Network (Richard R. Clayton, Robert L. Balster, Linda M. Collins, Brian R. Flay, Gary Giovino, Jack E. Henningfield, Mary Jeanne Kreek, Robert J. McMahon, Kathleen R. Merikangas, Stephen Tiffany) and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Marjorie A. Gutman, Nancy J. Kaufman, Denis Prager) for their suggestions and comments on versions of this manuscript. The manuscript also benefited greatly from the suggestions of John Hughes

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ReviewCurrent models of nicotine dependence: what is known and what is needed to advance understanding of tobacco etiology among youth

Abstract

Section snippets

Introductory remarks: the problem of youth smoking

Conceptual framework and organizational structure

Features of substance dependence

Models of dependence

Concluding remarks: a proposed research agenda

Acknowledgements

Trends Pharmacol. Sci.

Prev. Med.

J. Res. Personality

Addict. Behav.

Addict. Behav.

Alcohol

Addict. Behav.

Drug Alcohol Depend.

Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.

Brain Res. Rev.

Prog. Brain Res.

Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.

Drug Alcohol Depend.

Family research and alcoholism

Transdisciplinary paradigms for tobacco prevention research

Nicotine Tobacco Res.

Social learning theory

Psychosocial stress and coping in smokers who relapsed or quit

Health Psychol.

Tobacco dependence: integrating individual and public health perspectives

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Modernity at Large

Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory

Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control

Pharmacologic aspects of cigarette smoking and nicotine addiction

New Engl. J. Med.

Circadian blood nicotine concentrations during cigarette smoking

Clin. Pharmacol. Ther.

The influence of situation and coping on relapse crisis: outcomes after smoking cessation

J. Consult. Clin. Psychol.

Opiate reinforcement processes: re-assembling multiple mechanisms

Addiction

A review of the effectiveness of SmokeBusters: community based smoking prevention for younger people

Health Educ. Res.

Cigarette smoking among adults: 1993

Morbidity Mortality Weekly Rep.

Projected smoking-related deaths among youth — United States

Morbidity Mortality Weekly Rep.

Tobacco use among high school students — United States, 1997

Morbidity Mortality Weekly Rep.

The natural history of cigarette smoking from adolescence to adulthood: demographic predictors of continuity and change

Health Psychol.

Classically conditioned factors in drug dependence

Mesolimbic dopaminergic activation: the key to nicotine reinforcement

Debunking myths about self-quitting: evidence from ten prospective studies of persons who attempt to quit smoking by themselves

Am. Psychol.

Progress toward the development of animal models of smoking-related behaviors

J. Addict. Dis.

Nicotine maintains self-administration in rats on a limited-access schedule

Psychopharmacology

Alcohol dependence: provisional description of a clinical syndrome

Br. Med. J.

Smoking, stress, and coronary heart disease

J. Consult. Clin. Psychol.

Relationship between cigarette smoking and health risk problem behaviors among US adolescents

Arch. Pediatr. Adolesc. Med.

Commonalities in the environmental control of behavior

Neurobehavioral model of addiction: addiction as a primary disease

Effects of nicotine and exposure to cigarette smoke on discrete dopamine and noradrenaline nerve terminal systems of the telcephalon and diencephalon of the rat: relationship to reward mechanisms and distribution of nicotine binding sites in brain

Forms of Explanation

Personality, psychopathology, and nicotine response as mediators of the genetics of smoking

Behav. Genet.

Individual differences in and reliability of electroencephalogram, cortisol, beta-endorphin, heart rate, and subjective responses to smoking multiple cigarettes via a quantified smoke delivery system

Effects of smoking on anxiety, heart rate, and lateralization of EEG during a stressful movie

Psychopharmacology

Review
Current models of nicotine dependence: what is known and what is needed to advance understanding of tobacco etiology among youth