We have had sight of a study that examines the relationship between
smoking and anxiety. It has traditionally been accepted that smoking relieves
stress (based on anecdotal evidence). I am
not aware of any empirical study out there that would corroborate this
hypothesis but as nicotine is a psychoactive drug, it is likely that it affords
the perception of stress reduction. A
new study by researchers at the King’s College London however has suggested
that giving up smoking actually reduces anxiety, whereas failure to give up
smoking causes anxiety levels to increase.
While the headline caught my attention, the study is so full
of holes that it is difficult to know where to start. Sure, anxiety levels were
measured and discovered to be at a lower level in the group that had
successfully quit and anxiety levels increased amongst those that had failed to
quit but I could not see anything in the study that explored the possibility
that the stress levels recorded might be related to any factors external to the
study. The nature of this study meant that it this sort of interrogation was
not possible but this avenue of investigation really would be necessary to
corroborate the hypothesis. The study was also very small – only 68 participants
had abstained from smoking after 6 months.
I
think that the researchers are onto something: smoking puts a lot of stress on
the body so a reduction in perceived stress after a period of time is probably
a correctly observed phenomenon but this does not explain the increased stress
levels amongst the group that failed to quit. Clearly more work is needed if a
conclusion is to be successfully drawn but no doctor that I know would ever be
advising a patient to continue smoking to reduce anxiety levels so I am not
sure what utility such a study would provide.