Daily uplifts, hassles, stresses and cognitive failures: in cigarette smokers, abstaining smokers, and non-smokers.

Cigarette smokers (n = 25), temporarily abstaining smokers (n = 25) and non-smokers (n = 25), self-rated their feelings of stress, arousal and pleasure, every 3 h over a normal day. Then, later in the evening, they rated the hassles, uplifts, stresses and cognitive failures they had experienced during the day. The abstaining smokers reported significantly worse psychological states on every assessment measure, in comparison with both non-smokers and non-deprived smokers. Abstinence thus led to greater stress, lower arousal, less pleasure, more cognitive failures, more hassles and less uplifts. The non-deprived smokers did not differ from the non-smokers on any dependent variable. These findings support the Deprivation Reversal Model, which states that the apparent benefits of smoking only represent the reversal of unpleasant abstinence effects. These data provide no evidence to support the Nicotine Resource Model, which suggests that tobacco smoking can relieve stress and improve cognitive functions. The repetitive use of nicotine by cigarette smokers does not seem to generate any real psychobiological gains or advantages. Instead, dependent smokers need regular hits of nicotine just to remain feeling normal.