Smokers and researchers alike have long believed that people smoke, at least in part, to deal… Smokers and researchers alike have long believed that people smoke, at least in part, to deal with bad moods and frustration. People often talk about smoking as a way to calm their nerves or to fight depression, which may be key to understanding the habit that leads to a third of the cancer deaths.

Researchers in Pitt’s psychology department, however, have recently concluded that smoking may not be as mood related as previously believed.

The study, titled “Immediate Antecedents of Cigarette Smoking: An Analysis From Ecological Momentary Assessment” determined that while a variety of other social factors affect smoking, cigarettes are not related to positive or negative moods, or to arousal. The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the research team, which was led by Saul Shiffman.

In order to monitor smoking habits and examine their connection to mood, the research team provided 304 heavy smokers participating in a smoking cessation program with small handheld computers called electronic diaries. During the course of six weeks, the study participants carried the electronic diaries with them and recorded each time they smoked a cigarette. The participants then entered data about their activities, their location, their mood and their desire to smoke at that time.

Four or five times a day, the participants were “beeped” at random by the electronic diaries and asked questions about their mood, activities and location at times when they were not smoking.

Though the researchers determined that there was no connection to mood, they found that people still experienced urges to smoke when eating or drinking, when around other people who are smoking and when they engaged in recreation. According to Shiffman, when people are busy, their impulses to smoke remain at a low level. When they are relaxing, however, their urge to smoke resurfaces. The team also found that smoking was moderately associated with restlessness, though they attributed this to the nicotine withdrawal between cigarettes.

“We have long believed that smoking was triggered by negative moods based on smoker’s own beliefs,” Shiffman said. “However, this more direct and valued research method shows that smoking is not usually related to mood. This should make us re-evaluate our basic models of smoking behavior.”

Shiffman explained that this technique allows researchers to examine smoking habits in real time and in the smoker’s everyday environment. He and his team have been the first to extensively use the electronic diary method, previously having used it in a study of the behavior of “chippers,” or regular smokers who do not become addicted to cigarettes.

Shiffman described the technique as being more effective than questionnaires, the other primary method for examining smoking behavior. When answering questionnaires, he said, smokers tend to provide more information about their beliefs about smoking and the circumstances surrounding when they started. Shiffman said that in these cases, mood has more of an influence. However, as time passes, these initial circumstances decline in importance as smoking urges arise from nicotine regulation triggered by the brain.

“The improved research methods used in this study allowed us to get beyond what smokers believe about their behavior to capture what is really going on,” Shiffman said.

“We’re getting more intimate with the smoker’s difficulties, which leads to better leverage for better treatment.”