Bonnie Springs at Hines Hospital, VA Medical Center, gave depressed and non-depressed subjects either nicotinized or denicotinized cigarettes after introducing a positive mood trigger and found that [s]elf-administering nicotine appears to improve depression-prone smokers emotional response to a pleasant stimulus. To investigate further, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh studied whether or not cigarettes improve emotional response to stressful triggers such as preparing for public speaking, dealing with a difficult computer task, and seeing negative images
The two industries also use similar strategies to cast doubt on the dangers of their products
Miller School co-authors were Runxia Tian, M.D., Alessia Fornoni, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, chief of the Katz Family Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, and director of the Peggy and Harold Katz Family Drug Discovery Center, and Sandra Merscher, Ph.D., research associate professor
However, these effects appeared to diminish over time